A Pumpkin Fairytale

Cinderella’s stepmother would not let her go. On the evening of the dance, Cinderella was at home alone, when suddenly her fairy godmother appeared! She cast a spell turning a pumpkin into a golden carriage and Cinderella’s rags into a beautiful outfit, including a pair of glass slippers…

A Pumpkin Fairytale

You all know the popular Cinderella fairy tale. The glass slippers. The fairy godmother. The magical pumpkin. While a fairy godmother and a good pair of glass slippers are hard to come by, The Old Farmer’s Almanac for Kids shows how you can grow a pumpkin of your own! When mature, it will look like the one that became Cinderella’s coach.

Officially, it’s called ‘Rouge Vif D’Etampes’, also known as Cinderella’s pumpkin. Like other varieties (including one called ‘Fairytale’), it likes 75 to 100 days (or more) of warm weather and needs lots of room (50 to 100 square feet) to grow. When all danger of frost has passed, make two or three small hills of well-drained soil, with aged manure or compost added, about 5 to 6 feet apart. Plant four to five seeds one inch deep in each hill. When the young plants are about 2 inches tall, remove the weakest ones, leaving the strongest two or three plants.

Weed around your pumpkin plants regularly. Weeds compete with the pumpkin for nutrients and water.

Water about 1 inch per week, especially in early summer and during long dry periods.

Did You Know?

The world’s largest pumpkin was grown by Ron Wallace from Greene, Rhode Island. It weighed 2,009 pounds.

The largest pumpkin pie was presented by residents of New Bremen, Ohio, on September 25, 2010, at the New Bremen annual Pumpkinfest. The pie was 20 feet in diameter and weighed 3,699 pounds.

Pumpkin regatta races are held in Nova Scotia, Maine, Oregon, and Vermont every year. Contestants carve out gigantic 1,000-pound pumpkins and race them as boats.

How do you fix a cracked pumpkin? With a pumpkin patch!