Field of Science

Outa his gourd!

Mac Condill is out of his gourd, just plain nuts-crazy, in a good way, about pumpkins and squashes! A visit to this Lincolnland icon just outside the mighty metropolis of Arthur (mind the horses & buggies) would convince anyone about his condition. The Great Pumpkin Patch is a paradise of cucurbits, an ode to squashes, pumpkins, and gourds, a symphony of pepos. This fellow is an alumnus of my public institution of higher learning, and this probably figures into his deranged state of mind, but the Phactor assures you the only physical danger is having a squash dropped on your foot (the largest on display topped 900 lbs!). However once you behold the over 400 varieties of squashes and pumpkins being raised and sold as fruit or seed here it might result in your catching gourd fever. Pumpkins and squashes are all classified in just a few (3 or 4) species of Cucurbita and they are all trace their ancestry to Central America, but as they have moved around the world and interacted with people, their genetic diversity has become manifest in all these varieties. So which variety is the best for flavoring pumpkin ice cream? Believe me, Mac knows.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beautiful! For the first (and perhaps only) time in my life, I wish Nebraska were closer to Arizona.

~Shelley

The Phytophactor said...

"Knee-bite-ska"? One of us is very confused about Lincolnland!

Anonymous said...

In that case, I'm even farther from the Midwest than I thought! "Lincolnland" is an -ism beyond my ken, unless you mean the land of Lincoln.

~Shelley

The Phytophactor said...

We here in the great state of corruption understand your confusion.

türkiye ve hayata dair herşey said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
angel said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.