Congrats! I think the Pumpkinator has character.
I love seeing the "fruits" of your labors. Sorry bad pun.

Have a great weekend!

Oops I forgot to put my name! I was even first.

It was a $200 investment. That investment did better than most on Wall Street did this week! At least you have something to show for it.

GREAT pumpkins! The Pumpkinator should go right on your front step! Is Bob afraid of it?

Have a wonderful weekend, sweetie!

Ooooo! Just what you need on Halloween! A scary pumpkin!

You dont even need to disembowel it to make scary! It's perfect!

The little one needs a knitted hat, and maybe a scarf.

Don't think of it as an investment in vegetables; think of it as an investment in fun. I like how different they are, sort of like good twin/bad twin.

OMG, that's amazing! A giant cat toy! A huge head for modeling knit hats! A coffee table base (balance a board on top). Oh, the possibilities are endless!

Until it rots, of course.

How big is that Thing? I was at a Farmer's Market in Missoula, MT and saw gigantic zucchini and thought of you. They were about 18" long!

We had to pay extra at the apple orchard for a warty pumpkin! Like 49 cents a pound instead of 29 cents! You've got a national treasure there! :)

They are BOTH fabulous! Good for you!

Your pumpkin offspring are adorable, each in their own right! Like all of us, they have their individual attributes:)
I've kept pumpkins on my doorstep (in Southern CA) from mid-October all the way past Thanksgiving by not cutting them open to create jack-l-lanterns. Sometimes I use permanent markers to draw a face. And it is a good use of a knit hat in So Cal!
Happy, merry Halloween!

See? This is exactly why I don't garden.

But if you are happy, that is all that counts.
.

the Pumpkinator is AMAZING! I think everyone should have one. :D

Robert de Niro impersonator. So true.

We need Bob in the pic with the Pumpkinator, you know, for Perspective.

My church decorates for fall with three giant pumpkins that look like yours, plus assorted smaller pumpkins, squash, and gourds, placed in front of the altar. I think it's lovely.

Awesome! And I agree with LisaK -- we need a kitty in the picture for scale! (Also, for added cuteness.)

Gardens never seem to be cost effective for me either, but isn't it an awesome feeling to actually have your efforts rewarded with veggies?!

I didn't "earn" a return on my garden investment this year either. But your pumpkins are terrific and you SHOULD be proud!
(((hugs)))

Shouldn't this qualify for a $24,618 farm subsidy, more or less?

I'm trying to get my cats certified as "non-performing assets" so I can qualify for bail-out funding.

I LOVE pumpkins and you have inspired me to try and grow some next year also!

I love that the PUMPKINATOR is a "he". :-D

Wouldn't it be fun if he showed up on the GOVERNATOR's front porch for Halloween?

I vote for the small and lovely pumpkin. It's cute like Bob. How big IS the pumpkinator?

Love the Pumpkins...nothing feels better than producing vegetable life from the earth.

Heh. You should knit it a little PUMPKIN hat. (I am cool in ways that have yet to be appreciated.)
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving, btw.

You have got to carve that warty one up and put a cigar in his mouth then post it here for all of us to see cos that would be awesome!

I love your pumpkins and your website. Have a lovely fall weekend.

I think you need to use both of them to make the jack-o-lantern on the cover of this book:

http://www.extremepumpkins.com/newiwrotebook.html

Maybe the pumpkinators job was to scare away zukes!
I think he's deliciously ugly. I bought one even uglier at the farmers market yesterday!

Just wanted to say that I stumbled across your blog today and you're very funny!

I find these two specimens much more civilized than the previous wave. Attach of the killer zucchini!

That little one is tres jolie!

I'm so excited for you (and a bit envious, too!) We had such a cold summer here in Alaska (don't laugh--it really was colder than normal!) that my pumpkins made a couple of little yellow balls that sadly "poofed away" with our first frost last month.

You know, those smaller sized pumpkins taste FABULOUS when you cook them up and puree them for pies, soups, breads, etc. Easy-peasy to do...I've done this for many years. Your freezer will be happy to store 2-cup zipbags of frozen pumpkin puree until you're ready to use them.

Make Warty into a pimply faced teenager for Halloween!

I think your profit margins are on par with the average American farmer (if I believe what my uncle the wheat farmer tells me.)

Enh, gardening is like knitting. We don't do it because it's *cheaper* than store-bought! It's got priceless entertainment value built right in!

I know there's a Hollywood scare flick in there somewhere - THE PUMPKINATOR! Being a middle school/high school teacher, I'm sure kids would pay to go see that if scariness was involved!

Because DeNiro impersonators are WAY creepier than the actual DeNiro. *shudder*

Congratulations to you and drats for me - I'm reminded again, despite a bumper squash crop in every other category (especially that of the ever fruitful zucchini) - alas, my pumpkins blossomed repeatedly to no avail this year.

Judging by the loving care it took to bring the Pumpkinator and the Perfect Li'l Punkin' to fruition, I think the Great Pumpkin would consider your pumpkin patch to be the most sincere. Keep an eye out for him, Halloween night!

Pumpkinator = Best. Freaky. Pumpkin. Ever!

Nice work :D

They both look FANTASTIC.

Hey, maybe you could hollow-out that big'un and paddle across one of those California lakes with it. (Saw some guy do it recently on the news)
Ang

I see pumpkin bread, and pumpkin pie in the making. :)

Well they are both darling, but I have to admit, I love the warty one more.

Congrats! Glad to see that the pumpkins won out over the zucchini this year!

One word: Pie.

Beverley's word is great, but it's missing an "s". PieS. :)

I just remembered, my dad loves pumpkin seeds. Maybe I need to go buy some pumpkins (or steal the neighbor's) and disembowel it for the seeds for my dad.

I have to ask my aunt how to toast the seeds. I remember she used to do that on Halloween every year...and she'd save a few seeds to plant in my grandma's yard (I think it was grandma's yard...it was awhile ago)

I love you, but perhaps you should just stick to knitting. Just sayin'

Hey! Growing pumpkins in the valley ain't easy! Just sayin'! :-)

You should use the big one to make some homemade pumpkin pie - the weird-looking ones usually have the best innards! (after you leave it on your porch to scare trick-or-treaters, that is!) Your tiny perfect one would make an awesome jack-o-lantern, but is likely to just have a thin layer of flesh.

Yippee! Yay for you!

OH I love the warty one too. I can relate to him, and think he should certainly have a go at sitting on the front step where he'll have a good chance at grabbing a succulent little Sarah Palin or Quasimodo on Halloween night! (Anyone want to bet there are a LOT of Palins around this year? Anyone want to top HER for downright watery-kneed scary??) My lovely back yard seems to be a wild thorny thicket after my careful neglect this summer, and there's an odd tree with what looks almost like little grapes on. I tasted one (just a teensy); I'm going to try to find out what they are. If they're edible I'm eatin' 'em. If I die before finding out what they are - why, I'll know they're NOT edible. "Adventures in Gardening". Gotta love it.

Oh my! I wouldn't try carving that pumpkin if I were you...

I LOVE the pumpkins. Are they the same kind?? Now, just turn to the pumpkin section in your Fannie Farmer cookbook (I know you have one!) and you'll be all set!

Also, your money topic was just what the doctor ordered. My husband and I are getting back to living life on a budget, writing down all our expenses (where does it go?), and trying to pay the debts all down. But I like your attitude. Thank goodness things aren't worse, and we have a savings goal in mind (a looooong term goal, but a goal, nonetheless). Happy thoughts!

What a hoot! Will there be pie and ice cream? And what sort of wine goes best with the above? Snicker.

That's only $100 a pumpkin. Bargain.

My favorite is the warty one. It's so scary and creepy. . . like halloween should be.

Blessings,

Sher

If it makes you feel any better NPR did a story on how it's been a bad year for pumpkins and how some in Colorado exploded in the field. At least you didn't have an exploding pumpkin.

The thing about pumpkins and all their squash kin is that they are terribly promiscuous inside the general squash family. And that, I suspect, is how you got the Pumpkinator. It's not a weird mutation caused by Valley smog ...

You don't really NEED any more pumpkins than that!!

Will you eventually eat the Pumpkinator? I bet he'd taste as good as any other pumpkin.

OK, obviously we need a photo with the Pumpkinator next to a creature or object whose size we can verify---Bob? the little pumpkin, since we've seen it in your hand??

Love it--

Ha, that THING you call a pumpkin is huge. I can't wait to see what you will do with it.

I think you need to pose the two together in the pumpkin patch at night and call it "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil."

saw something cute that you can totally use - stick a half dozen or so crimped and crooked pipe cleaners on the Pumpkinator's head, draw some large googly eyes on it, carve one giant square mouth, and put up a sign that says "Take Me To Your Leader"

Hahaha I love NancyKnits' idea!

Great Pumpkins!!

You can't be a bad gardener if you can grow those beauties. You better not leave it on the door step or someone may fancy it as lantern come the 31st Oct

Hope you aren't too close to the fires talked about this morning on the news.

Cheers
Beverley [ Who is soon to plant her pumpkins for the summer downunder ]

PS And just how many litres of soup were you planning then!?

Please, Ms. CrazyAuntPurl, help me! I'm knitting my first hat, and have run into a bit of a pickle. I'm not using a pattern, you see, and I can't find one that matches my yarn. I'm using some Blue Sky Alpaca Dyed Cotton, and my gauge is around 4 stitches per inch. I don't know what to use for the decreasing! Your Roll Brim Hat recipe is quite helpful, but I don't know what to do. Can you help me?

Love the pumpkins. The Pumpkinator should be well able to protect his little sister.
Yes, do look for the Great Pumpkin come Halloween night. YOUR patch has to be the most sincere.
:)

You ok? With the fires and the winds and all?

Laurie - please let us know you're okay. I know that things should be fine in Encino-Adjacent, but we worry :-).

Laurie, are you and the cats safe? Our front page in Baton Rouge this morning had a very scary picture of people evacuating and the hills on fire. I was worried yesterday, but today I am worried to the tenth power. Safe thoughts to you and your dear ones.

I came here with just the same concern (winds and fires and evacuations, oh my)! Laurie, we're thinking of you, I hope you and the kitties are safe.