Pumpkins, Are For Fun, Food & Funds

(Page 3 of 3)

September/October 1972
By Jack Roland Coggins 
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Pumpkins intended for Jack-O-Lantern use can be sold at roadside or in the front yard if displayed with signs indicating their price range. A little showmanship can really help move the fruit and a scarecrow, set up for atmosphere, has been known to substantially increase sales.

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One homesteader I know sells hundreds of pumpkins each Halloween by displaying them as "ready-made" seasonal faces. "I don't carve them," he told me, "because—if I did—they'd spoil. I just make the faces with different vegetables or whatever strikes my fancy . . . even fishing lures. These ready-made 'jacks' sell faster and at better prices than my undecorated stock."

Another friend grows a number of huge pumpkins (up to 100 pounds each) by planting the Big Max variety, fertilizing gently three or four times during the season and regularly pruning off all but three or four of the largest fruits from each vine.

"We don't sell as many of these giants as we do the more convenient sizes," he notes, "but our oversized specimens are great attention-getters. Banks, stores and other businesses pay premium prices for the whoppers and use 'em as the focus of eyepopping Halloween displays. We made our initial sales with a few phone calls and, now, a number of businesses have standing orders with us for an established delivery date of a monster pumpkin each year."

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