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Lessons learned in the pumpkin patch

Pumpkins don't grow well in Florida. Don't pick them up by the stem. Those and other lessons are imparted at a church pumpkin festival.

By BETH N. GRAY
Published October 29, 2005

RIDGE MANOR - What can kids learn in a pumpkin patch?

A bit of horticulture, of course. But also some geography, logistics, botany, produce handling, improvisational acting, singing, story listening, art and deportment.

All those subjects are woven into the Pumpkin Patch/Fall Pumpkin Festival at Ridge Manor United Methodist Church, which continues from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. today and Monday, and from noon to 7 p.m. Sunday.

"It's not just a playtime, that's for sure," Pastor Debbie Nelson said Thursday as she observed some 30 kindergarteners eagerly glean information at a learning tent, a hands-on tent, a storytelling tent and, indeed, a growing pumpkin patch.

"We wanted them to really learn something," the pastor said.

Some 250 students from elementary schools throughout the county will have taken part by the festival's end. Today, which will also feature scarecrow making, is expected to be big with family visitors.

But much of the fun during the week was of the learning kind, presented by volunteers wearing pumpkin-print neckerchiefs and pumpkin-orange straw hats decorated with autumn-colored leaves.

The geography lesson: The 1,200 pumpkins with which the festival was launched were grown on the Navajo Nation Reservation in the "four corners" region of the United States. Church volunteer Sandy Pritts pointed on a large map to the juncture of Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico.

"Pumpkins don't really grow very well in Florida," she told the students from Hernando Christian Academy.

Logistics note: Pritts showed photos of the reservation's crop, hundreds of acres of pumpkins, which elicited a chorus of "wow" and "cool" from the youngsters. She moved a toy truck across the map, showing its route to Ridge Manor.

Botany experience: Clear glass jars of pumpkin seedlings in various stages of growth made the rounds of the onlookers, who marveled at root masses, seed leaves, mature leaves and finally blossoms from which the pumpkins would develop.

In the pumpkin patch, children were invited to feel leaves on the vines. "Fuzzy," declared Jordan Mason, 5.

At the hands-on tent, church volunteer Joanne Ritz showed off pumpkins smooth and warted, another that sat on its side, gourds white and green and yellow or multicolored, and a small one the kids said looked like a meatball.

Shrill laughter greeted the appearance of a slender and curled green gourd.

"It looks like a snake," Brenna Moon, 6, said with a giggle.

Another 6-year-old, Breana Blankenship, raised it over her head and tried it on as a necklace, to much laughter.

Ritz pointed out that among her audience, one had red hair, one blond, one short, one long. She told the kids: "God has made all these pumpkins, just like you - different on the outside; inside, they're all the same."

Nelson said volunteers insert a bit of religion into their presentations for Christian school groups. For other visitors, the lessons are strictly nonreligious.

A produce handling lesson: A pumpkin stem is not a handle but a stem, Pritts told the children. If the stem breaks off, the pumpkin deteriorates. The kids then learned to pick up a pumpkin from its bottom.

Improvisational acting, singing, story listening: Volunteer Diane Beuthe read a tale of all kinds of pumpkin faces. "A happy face," she said. "Give me a happy face." The class complied, and followed with extemporaneous renditions of sad, scary, short, tall, slimy, bright, hot, cold and spooky.

Nelson led the children in a song with hand motions, I'm a Little Pumpkin to the tune of I'm a Little Teapot. They ended with a resounding "boo!" which sent the adults into a choreographed flight of supposed fright.

The lessons didn't end at the conclusion of the visit. Nelson asked the visiting students to write letters about what they liked, and what else they would enjoy at the event.

Also available at the festival are photo opportunities on a John Deere farm tractor; hay bales for climbing; pumpkins, gourds and Indian corn for purchase, and free pumpkin painting.

It is the first festival the church of 91 congregants has staged. It has been in planning since May, coached by a United Methodist church with such experience in St. Petersburg, Nelson said. Probably all of the congregants got involved in some of the planning and presentation, she said.

While all of the classes that took part this year were from religious schools, Nelson said, "we hope to get public schools out next year."

Beth N. Gray may be contacted at graybethn@earthlink.net

WHAT: Pumpkin Patch/Fall Pumpkin Festival

WHEN: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. today and Monday; noon to 7 p.m. Sunday

WHERE: Ridge Manor United Methodist Church, 34350 Cortez Blvd., Ridge Manor

ADMISSION: Free

INFORMATION: 583-3770.

[Last modified October 29, 2005, 01:45:21]