To Be or Not to Be…a Pumpkin Patch…

There’s no patch like a pumpkin patch!

Or is there?

This wondrous display of an October Harvest is about 5 miles down the road from where I live in Wisconsin and it is ENORMOUS, GARGANTUAN, and “Mouth Dropping”—to say the least!

BUT, to be clear and rather picky, this is not actually a “pumpkin” harvest because a large portion of this glorious display are smallish colorful squashes. And… In fact, if you want to get very technical about this, my in-depth research (haha) reveals that pumpkins are actually a type of winter squash!

So this is actually a HUGE Squash Yard! –And I would also suggest that it is not correct to say that this is a “patch” because according to “country” vernacular, a “patch” is really a smallish section of land where folks grow their squashes (and/or their pumpkins) and the squash/pumpkins in this photo have already been harvested and are not growing anymore! Nor is this farmhouse yard small.

But I am really being too picayune, Eh?

A picayune was a Spanish coin, worth half a real or one sixteenth of a dollar. Its name derives from the French picaillon, which is itself from the Provençal picaioun, the name of an unrelated small copper coin from Savoy. By extension, picayune can mean “trivial” or “of little value”.

A pumpkin is a type of winter squash, but “squash” is a broader category that includes both summer and winter varieties. The main difference is that pumpkins are often rounder and used for decoration or baking, while other squash types can be more varied in shape and size, with some being better suited for roasting or other dishes. Both are botanically fruits and are often used interchangeably in recipes, though the flesh of a pumpkin can be stringier than that of a common cooking squash like butternut.