Not the Great Pumpkin.  It was the green pumpkin.  And it wasn’t picked to early.  It was supposed to be that way.

Last year, we had a green pumpkin, along with a couple of regular old orange ones, sitting on our porch.  It wasn’t really bright green.  Kind of a grey-green.  So maybe it was actually a blue pumpkin instead, since they can tend toward that colour.  Although I think it was actually green.  What I do know is, it was not to be carved.  The pumpkin would not allow it.

Pumpkins can come in a lot of different colours.  Some have meaning.  Some are just interesting looking.  Like the white ones.  We see quite a few white ones around these days.  But they also come in teal, black, blue, pink, purple, yellow, red, orange and black, dark green and tan.  Some of those are really squashes, but they are still pumpkin like.

One is not a natural pumpkin colour.  That would be purple.  The purple pumpkin has been around for a few years to help raise awareness of epilepsy.  The others are all natural pumpkin colours.

Some do have other meanings.  Pink pumpkins are for breast cancer awareness.  Teal pumpkins are a signal of food allergy awareness and that you have treats that would not trigger food allergies and do not contain things like dairy or nuts.  Blue pumpkins are for autism awareness.  So pumpkins can be more than just a decoration.

Our green pumpkin last year, which wasn’t really bright green, but green enough to be called green, was a decoration.  Although, as I mentioned, it was not to be carved.  It would be much easier to carve something out of marble, or even granite.  This thing was hard.  We though for a moment about carving it, but soon gave up that idea.

But I was hoping to collect some seeds.  Just to give them a try and see if we could grow a green pumpkin.  But getting to the seeds was going to be a major task.

I left the pumpkin sitting on the step for a while.  Although it was showing no sign of starting to decay.  I finally dragged it out back and left it for a while longer, hoping to be able to get inside.  It was not happening.  The thing was still hard as a rock.

Finally, around February, I threw the pumpkin down on a cement block.  It cracked.  A bit.  Not much.  But there was a crack.  I found an axe and kept working at the crack.  Eventually, a big chunk came free.  There was a bit of rot inside, but for the most part, it was still a very solid pumpkin long after it should have been.  I collected a few seeds and tossed the pumpkin.

I did plant a couple of the seeds.  I think the slugs ate them.  No indestructible pumpkins grew in my garden.  But I hope to try again some day.

But I did learn a few things.  Not all pumpkins are orange.  And not all pumpkins are made to turn into Jack-o-lanterns.  Some are too tough for that.

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