The Compassionate Pumpkin

This is a repeat post from 2007 but I thought some of you new readers would enjoy it. That was the year that a very early Spring, followed by a severe frost, played havoc with our state’s fruit trees. My son, for instance, has over 40 blueberry bushes. They are great producers and he always has more than he can possibly use, but in 2007 he didn’t harvest enough to fill a quart jar.

So, it was not a complete surprise when I visited friends in Blowing Rock, North Carolina and saw that all their apple trees were devoid of fruit. They said the trees had produced a few wrinkled and sour apples but nothing worth eating or putting into a pie.

The strange thing, however, was what did manage to survive. In hopes to buffer the effects of the freeze they had used a mixture of compost and loam around the trees. This didn’t seem to work but, much to their surprise a healthy and robust vine started to grow from the base of one of the apple trees. The tendrils wrapped around the trunk and moved protectively up into the branches and, as the owners watched in amazement, a seedling appeared far up in the crook of the tree limbs.

Nothing could stop the progress of that hardy little guy and it wasn’t long before the seedling took on shape and color. IT WAS A PUMPKIN … growing larger and happier with each passing day,

My friends were thrilled and dubbed it “the compassionate pumpkin” who couldn’t bear to leave the apple tree fruitless.