The Great Pumpkin Hunt

We are so thankful to be enjoying cooler weather and the wonderful breeze from the sea. We haven’t had this cool of weather in the middle of fall (mid-70’s) in about 2 years! We are loving it and soaking in every second. Because it is this time of year… we decided to join in with the traditions of home and look for the perfect pumpkin and carve it. We did this last year with Sadie Mac, and if you will remember we did the best we could with a watermelon! So, we were thrilled to see a few pumpkins here and there, so we decided to hunt for one.
I will be honest here, I am a realist in most cases living overseas. I wasn’t expecting to meet an actual pumpkin farmer like there are in the States. I wasn’t expecting a tractor ride or anything out to a pumpkin patch where we can walk through isles of them and pick your very own PERFECT PUMPKIN! I DO love living overseas and am content to know that there will be only a small batch to choose from, but I was eager to find that small batch!!!
We set out one afternoon and knew of a “vegetable guy” about 2 blocks from our house and we started there. He had a small rack of average sized pumpkins, but we knew there had to be more! We walked up and down that street as we had heard there were several “vegetable guys” around there and were sad to see that there weren’t more. So, we asked a few of the people on the street where a vegetable market was in hopes of a greater selection. Two ladies told us where a vegetable sooq (big market) was and so we set off. The taxi driver concurred that there was in fact a vegetable market where we were headed. On the way, we went we landed in some late afternoon traffic which deterred our adventure, but finally we did arrive! As we walked down the street where this large market was suppose to be, we were saddened to find that it was a smaller vegetable selection than the original one we found near our house. So… the hunt continued. We asked some other people and they sent us to another location and after being yet again disappointed and having a squirmy one-year-old we had a decision to make. Shall the hunt continue as dinner time approaches or be content in finding an average pumpkin? Well, neither seemed to suit us so we decided to go back to the first guy near our house. As we once again looked through the options, we picked a pumpkin that would be average to some upon first glances, but was truly a diamond in the rough! We were happy to find the PERFECT PUMPKIN!!

Sadie Mac and Daddy disagreeing as to where the eye of the pumpkin should go

Hmmm... this feels strange!

This is the Pumpkin Guy (or veggie guy) and his selection in the background