Another week at home for all of us, although it isn't out of the ordinary for us! From all of us at Laverock Hall, we hope you are coping well and beginning to see the bright side of lockdown. Chris has been waiting with bated breath for a delivery that has arrived this morning, and it has created some palpable excitement within the house (as can be seen from Walter, pictured). This is our first and only delivery of pumpkin seeds from the USA! Walter isn’t too sure yet, however the seed packets themselves became a perfect blanket for his fluffy legs, and I’m certain he’ll enjoy a frolic in a new crop!
This year, we are hoping to open a pick your own pumpkins to the public, and the final piece of our puzzle has finally arrived – hurrah!! The next step in the process is just to pray for a bit of rain to make the ground both soft and ready for seeds. We have half a dozen different varieties to grow, so there should be one for everyone in the family – Chris seems most excited about the ‘Goosebumps’ variety as it makes, in his own words, ‘nice and big knobbly gnarly ones’! With research like that and such technical terms, what could possibly go wrong? (Lockdown is sending us all mad!!)
It seems as if Chris has really done his research and has the field as ready as can be. It really is a great life to be married to a farmer who is always trying to farm better and diversify, mostly because it’s a great philosophy for life, and something we, as a team, have tried to instil into our children, whether they chose to go into farming or any other path.
Speaking of my kids, we also have a few smaller and typical looking pumpkins for younger people to carve, and we are really hoping to see lots of smiling faces in late October. In times like this I think it is important to look ahead of you, be that one day, or 6 months away.
I suppose for the next few weeks it is close our eyes, hope for rain, pray pumpkins grow, and tightly cross our fingers and toes that they are ready perfectly on time for an utterly spooky Halloween – for now, stay safe.