Maybe the hardest thing about planting pumpkins is not succumbing to the urge to toast, salt, and munch ALL the seeds before you get them in the ground.

The folks at Wallkill View Farm, however, where Historic Hudson Valley gets pound after pound of pumpkin for The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze, seem to have no problem planting these precious pumpkin seeds. (Perhaps they eat Corn Nuts instead?)

Here at the Blaze Blog, we’re continuing to patiently watch the little sprouts…well…sprout. Thousands of pounds of pumpkin they will soon be.

Check out this picture, taken in mid-June, of the little guy shown in the Blaze Blog’s first entry. Somehow, somewhere, a pumpkin is in there just waiting to burst out…Vibrant orange, olé!

A typical Jack O’Lantern might not seem like that big of a deal for someone to create, especially if they are already blessed with an artistic eye. But some of the more radical, intricate designs on display at The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze just defy belief. Can an abstract “Celtic knot” actually be hand-carved? Or are these things stamped out at a factory?

Trying to get to the bottom of this, I challenged Michael Natiello, the creative designer behind Blaze and all-around pumpkin carving guru, to shed at least a little spidery candlelight on the process.

 

Turns out it all starts with a hand-drawn pattern, like the example shown here. In order to get such a meticulous, eye-popping carved pumpkin, it pays to be patient and spend some time drawing the design, first on paper (as shown in the other image here), and then eventually transferring it or drawing it on the pumpkin.

Once that part’s complete, you bust out an array of tools that would make a medieval surgeon grin ear-to-ear to start the actual carving. More on that in future entries. Michael will hopefully chime in on what, besides a steady hand, the fledgling abstract carver needs to create pleasing pumpkinscapes.

For now, these two pictures perfectly demonstrate the argument for “drawing first, then carving,” and, I’m convinced, totally disprove the stamped-out-at-a-factory notion. Score one for Natiello…

Nothing gets us more excited about the coming 2007 Blaze than watching footage from last year's event. Thanks to YouTube, viewers from across the globe can relive (or live) the experience. Here's one excellent example we uncovered. Long live pumpkins!

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How far ahead do the folks at Historic Hudson Valley need to start planning for the following year's Blaze? Well, let's see...the final evening of Blaze 2006 was Sunday, Oct. 22, meaning that preparations for '07's festivities began in earnest on...Oct. 23...

Well, maybe not that early, but you get the idea. There's an enormous number of things to think about, especially given the huge expansion HHV is planning for the 2007 Blaze. Nineteen nights...all new installations (mixed in with the classics, of course)...seems like the marching orders for everything Blaze-related this year are "bigger" and "better."

Of course, it all starts with the pumpkins, grown right here in the Hudson Valley. Pictured are the first seedlings, planted on May 30.

We'll watch their progress on the Blaze Blog right through pickin' time.