The Tuckamore Homestead Great Pumpkin Growing Tradition

You’re invited!

Please join us for the first annual, Tuckamore Homestead Great Pumpkin Growing Tradition!

Any pumpkins you may be growing this season are welcome, not just the giants!

To connect with us via social media, tag our account, and use: #tuckamoretraditions

I’ve been hosting holiday themed parties for Theodora and her youngest of cousins since we moved back to our home town with hopes of creating some traditions and shared memories for them to remember and hold onto for years to come (see some of our Valentine’s Day fun here).

Without certainty of when social distancing will end, I decided to adapt our summer themed get together into a little family and friends fun activity we can still do but at a safe distance.

We decided we wanted to extend an invitation to all of our Tuckamore friends and family to try your hand at growing your own pumpkins.

We will be carrying a small amount of giant pumpkin seeds in our online shop, they will be the same seeds we will sow for the contest!

Each order will come with the seeds and a printed copy of the great pumpkin growing tradition poem. We delivered these to a few family members in peat pots and I think the littles, especially, were so excited to receive the invitation poem, especially addressed to them. I admittedly feel a bit like Clark Griswold when I’m planning our themed get togethers. Seeing the kids excited and having fun makes traditions that much more meaningful; I’m hoping that growing our own great pumpkins becomes an annual event.

Throughout the summer and come the fall harvest season, we welcome your own photos of your pumpkin growing process and fun.

You can either send your photos directly to us via our email, hi@tuckamorehomestead.com, or tag us via social media using the hashtag #tuckamoretraditions

From our Christmas gathering. Trying to get them all to sit long enough for a photo isn’t always easy!

We haven’t tried growing giant pumpkins before but we have been approaching holidays and seasons as though the next is not promised.

We don’t want to wait until we’re expert pumpkin growers or even next year to start this tradition or to share the process. There are six families (4 in my extended family, 2 are our close friends) so far who are trying their hand at winning the biggest pumpkin grower title. It’s not an official contest but a little friendly competition is always fun.

One of my family members has bit of an advantage as he has some experience growing on his family run hobby farm. His daughter has affectionately named her giant pumpkin seed: Peter Pumpkin.

Growing regular pumpkins was for pre-k, she’s ready to grow some real giants this year.

I included in the poem that there is to be no pumpkin growing sabotage of one another's pumpkins. Three of the families actually live on my road. I wonder if pumpkin cams are a thing?

Many thanks to one of our favourite illustrators: Katherine Bates, for bringing my dream of an old time, heritage feel pumpkin to life.

There is no guaranteed of successfully growing a giant pumpkin this first year but we are sure to have some fun trying and testing out theories and growing techniques.

I also love the idea of learning something new with other people and being able to chat about what we learn, any hiccups that arise, and hopefully successes.

We are going to start our pumpkin seeds indoors in little peat pots.

We can’t plant them outdoors until the last night of frost that could damage them has passed. In our area, that’s around May 27th. In total, it takes about 105-110 days for the pumpkins to reach full size. So, we will plant our seeds indoors, it’ll take about a week or so for them to sprout, and then we will plant them outdoors around June 10th, knowing that the frost date has passed. Our first frost of the fall is on average around October 10th. We counted the days in-between our outdoor plant date of June 10th, and the last frost date in October, to make sure we still had a full 105-110 days of frost free growing.

You can easily find the frosts dates for your own area here ,by typing in your location.

May the pumpkin growing odds be ever in your favour!

Thank you so much for popping by today, hope to see you again soon, -Samantha