Jack-O-Lantern Pumpkin (VERY FERTILE) Seeds
Cucurbita pepo var. pepo

The main photo is of my current pride and joy, an 18 pound pumpkin, which was just harvested yesterday. I’ve already started harvesting the seeds from these, they’re currently drying out on a screen in the shade, and will eventually be put into an envelope with some silica gel.

The story behind these is rather remarkable. My wife and I visited the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch last year, bought a couple of Jacks for Halloween, and never got around to carving them. Eventually they got moved to the back yard and forgotten about until spring, when they began to rot. I tossed them into the compost box, which was beside other, mature compost heaps.

One day, a few weeks into spring, I noticed a sickly little sprout poking up from under the rubber mat I cover the compost with (to trap the moisture in). Curious, I moved the compost box over a slot and left the little sprout to grow, to see what would happen. It exploded into growth until the current result is an enormous pumpkin patch about the size of two buses, side by side. I’ve already got pumpkins coming in, and despite the fact that these are not pie pumpkins or sweet pumpkins, they make absolutely delicious pies, and a fantastic soup

Anyway, I call it “The Accidental Pumpkin Patch”, and these seeds are incredibly fertile. I’ve got a second and third pumpkin patch sprouting up in places I didn’t even touch the soil. I guess a bird or a squirrel got to one and dropped it somewhere. So I’ve started to harvest these seeds, and would be happy to trade them for whatever fertile seeds or plants people want to swap for. I’m especially interested in herbs, agaves, and edible veg, but honestly, I’ll consider anything.