Pumpkin Flowers

To make a new pumpkin, we begin with pumpkin flowers.  There are boy flowers and there are girl flowers.  Only the girl flowers will become pumpkins (much to my husband's relief...), so we can eat the boy pumpkin flowers! (... much to my husband's horror!)  Girl pumpkin flowers have the bulb, boys don't.  Pumpkins are pollinated by insects (i.e. Honey Bees), so if you have pumpkins under a cloche, it is a good idea to open the cloches up, and plant flowers in your pumpkin patch to attract those helper bees!

  Today, I saw the first pumpkin flowers!   So excited so excited!  I know you shouldn't count your pumpkins before they sprout, but I pumpkin butter is my favorite, and I have a feeling this autumn will be very fruitful for that, fingers crossed!