Unknown: Hello, and thanks for joining us for another episode of Mid American gardener.

I'm your host Tinisha, Spain.

And as you can see, we are out of the studio and on location at the Great Pumpkin Patch in Arthur, Illinois.

This place is really cool so much to see and do.

And of course eat one of my favorites.

This is a sixth generation working family farm here the Condill family owns these grounds.

And they grow probably he says the most variety of pumpkins out of any patch in the world, they happen to be a favorite of you know, Martha Stewart, they've been featured at the White House and the Illinois governor's mansion.

So this place is truly, truly incredible.

But the family who lives here says their main goal is to get people to reconnect with agriculture, and also to get these off of our front steps and more of them on our dinner plates.

All right, and now we've caught up with Mac.

So before we get into the grand tour, and all the business of pumpkins, tell us a little bit about you.

Sure, well, like I said, Mac Condill.

I'm a fifth generation farmer here at the Great Pumpkin Patch just outside of Arthur, Illinois.

So my great great grandfather rode by horseback out here in what is now West Virginia, back in 1859.

So that's where the homestead bakery and that kind of shout out comes from.

We've got six generation now that are working at the farm.

So that group of eight cousins and all, you know, find a way to somehow help us out.

My parents still live on property.

I live in town now but it's definitely a family affair.

Definitely a family full of educators and and, you know, farmers and we love opening the farm to people.

Excellent now, it's called the Great Pumpkin Patch.

But you have so much more.

Let's talk about that.

Yeah, I oftentimes with new employees, we'd go around and we you know, we show them how to build a fence or pick a squash or whatever I said that puts the great in the Great Pumpkin Patch.

Right so, but that you're right, there's a lot of things that go into we I think are the most diverse pumpkin patch in the world.

So what's that mean?

Okay, cucurbit diversity cucurbits the fancy name for pumpkin squash and gourds right, so these little viney plants, so let's talk about cucurbits watermelon, cantaloupe, cucumbers, pumpkin squash gourds lufffa sponge, do you ever like do this bananas?

That's a kicker, but But yeah, so my point is cucurbits Cucurbitaceae a family is actually an underutilized under appreciated vegetable.

In fact, it's the fourth most popular plant family for human consumption over the span of time.

So there's the grass family, so corn, wheat, oats, things like that.

Second most important legumeenecea which would be your beans and peas and things like that.

Actually, the third most I spoke the third most is Cucurbitaceae.

And the way you can really know that it's kind of under utilized under appreciated is the fourth most plant family is Solonacea, which would be tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, right.

So we eat tons of potatoes, peppers, Americans, however, worldwide over the span of time, more cucurbits I've been consumed by humans than potatoes, peppers.

So you know, we as Americans don't often put it on our plate, right?

We might decorate with it.

And that's great.

However, let's not forget that these things were put on this planet to be consumed to be eaten.

So it's one of my pet peeves is when Halloween comes and they kick it to the curb.

Where's the nearest compost pile?

Well by putting it on your plate.

So we have different varieties.

The Noah's Ark, we do a lot of repurposing around here.

So this was a barn that we tore down to get all this beautiful red barn board.

And now what we have is kind of showcasing the diversity of the pumpkin family squash marching up to buy to as we tried to save them from extinction.

Now let's talk about that because you've got literally hundreds of different varieties, how many hundreds we go over 300 varieties I've seen probably 800 In my lifetime that have come and gone through our fields and our isolation plots and that sort of thing, you know, but you've got heirloom varieties with like, this is Seminole, which is from the Everglades in Florida.

I was talking earlier, this was seen and documented by the Christopher Columbus expedition when they are coming up what is the east coast of the US, they looked into the land and they saw these things, you know, dangling from the trees and didn't know what they were.

It's this squash that would have been eaten by the Native Americans and other population in that timeframe.

So you know, beautiful, great keeper 60 foot vines, they love growing up trees, which is where their spot would have been, and you can see they would have just dangled from the trees.

So that's kind of a form of you know, evolution as such.

It this beige color.

Another little tip, and it's beige is really, really good to eat.

So butternut squash, almost everyone knows about the butternut squash.

But there's so much more than butternut squash.

100 Seminole would be that Yes, exactly.

The pumpkin pie that's a beige color tan colored squash that they make our canned pumpkin out of.

So, yeah, we really think that, you know, just as Americans, we think of that big orange jacalyn.

Right, that big pumpkins.

Yeah.

But like, when you look at this, the species that you're trying to save?

And yeah, there's so many Yes, so many different colors and shapes.

They talk to like South American, anybody but Brazil specifically, and said, pumpkin, this is what they're thinking.

So this is a Brazilian pumpkin, right?

It's not orange, it's not a Jacqueline, and this is highly edible moranga de mesa.

In fact, it's got these beautiful little, you know, kind of wedges that I would just cut these wedges, take it out, it almost looks like a cantaloupe.

And just scoop the seeds out.

And I grill these just on an open flame, you know, just like you were a piece of chicken or something a little bit of seasoning.

And it's that simple.

And that's what people all around the world are using these for.

And yet we look at it and think, Oh, that's not recognizable.

There's no use for this.

Yeah, well, we're in the wrong, right, where you're kind of uneducated, so.

So we hope when people come out here to the Great Pumpkin Patch, they kind of open their eyes to all the vegetables.

And that's one of your focus is here.

You talked about making the carpets, the destination.

That's the reason people are coming.

We see a lot of bounce houses and other things that pumpkin patches, but you want people to really get connected here and learn while there.

Yes, yeah, we're a production based, you know, ag based sixth generation farm.

You know, it's like I said, it's our backyard.

My parents still live here.

But in the fall, it kind of turns into this Courbet wonderland of sorts.

And we love showcasing the diversity of the pumpkin family, and anybody that we can get that gets excited about, you know, an heirloom squash and starts asking for it by name.

That's how things stay around, right, because they're being wanted or looked for or whatever.

So, the more people we can get acquainted with Seminole squash, or Miranda de mesa, the more seed companies might keep it on the shelf, the more backyard gardeners might grow it, the more you might see it, akin to a farmers market, into someone's dining room table, then all of a sudden, you've kind of got your claws in it, and it'll stick around longer, because we're losing heirloom varieties, right and left, whether it's carrots, potatoes, cucurbits, whatever.

And that's a shame, because there's some beautiful stuff out there that's been along around a lot longer than we have.

That still deserves, I think, a nod.

And, you know, some recognition, if you will, and you've had international folks come here, just stop in for a visit.

And we're completely blown away that they were able to find something there.

Just last weekend, I had a couple from India.

They're American citizens now, but they live in Springfield.

And they came last year.

And they're looking through one of our displays, we have the League of cucurbit nations, right.

So all the Brazilian squash is under the Brazilian flag and all the Australian squash and so on.

So we have some squash from India.

And they were blown away, like, this is my stuff.

This is what we make our soup out of.

So of course, I sold them to the few that I had.

And they were they just couldn't believe it.

So I think it's really cool to come, you know, to East Central Illinois and the Amish country and have a international squash grown in central Illinois.

And then you've got that clientele that makes it out here and then makes that connection and then how that's so special to us.

special to them, become, you know, probably a repeat customer.

And it just, it's a great story around a squash.

Excellent.

Okay, let's go check out the A to Z pumpkins because I found that fascinating.

Why should I say pumpkins?

Should I say cucurbits?

What's, what's the proper term?

Right, you know, whatever rolls off your Yeah, I think the cucurbits we tend to kind of dumb it down, tongue.

which I hate to do that.

But I think of orange pumpkins as pumpkins, and we call pretty much everything else squash.

All right, but like you've got the Tetsukabuto, which is one of our favorites.

That's a Japanese pumpkin.

Okay, but I would call it a squash.

And this is what have you ever gotten into one of these?

No, no, do this.

Okay.

So let me set this down.

This we had with Martha Stewart and this is Tetsukabuto.

in Japanese means iron squash.

So you can tell it as hard as it is.

So I have a lot of folks that say, I don't have a knife big enough.

I don't know.

And so we're just going to pop that off.

And we're going to find the nearest hard surface and you're just going to pop Yes, right on the ground.

Let's see what else just wait okay, just do it.

Just do it.

No, no, no.

What did I say?

Iron squash.

You got it?

Yeah.

Oh, for goodness sake.

Alright, one more Come on.

Yeah, perfectly in half.

So you just would take those seeds out.

And then you've got all this meat in here to make a roasted squash.

Anything you do real well.

Yes, absolutely.

I make like a hash brown out of it where you just do little wedges, little olive oil, fry it up.

Here's my trick.

Anything you can do with a potato, you can do with the squash.

So you think what does that mean?

Okay, mashed potato, mashed squash, boiled potatoes, fried potatoes.

With fruit we've done like french fries out of something like this that's got a neck on it, where you can put it through, you know, a cutter where you get these like sweet potato fries, right?

Just same thing.

Sweet potato is an optimal good vegetable.

You can do anything with a squash that you can do with a potato.

And it smells kinda like watermelon.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, same family.

Yeah, they're cousins.

Interesting.

Now, for the home gardener, of course, we want folks to come visit.

But we also want people to get back to growing at home.

So can people find a lot of these rare types?

Right?

There are a couple companies in the US based that are starting to offer more heirloom varieties.

So I would say it's probably more readily available than you think.

And then once you do it, I think one of the tricks is let any barriers go like I hate when gardeners confine themselves to what the book says this page this yes, no, it's a plant.

It wants to do one thing grow, produce, you know, whatever it is so cucurbits want hot, dry weather.

That's why Central Illinois can grow any squash from around the world right here because they're also like a 75 to 140 day but mostly it's right in our day.

Yeah.

So it's a June July, August and then September, you've got your fruit type of a thing.

So you know, you can plan on I think a lot of people make the mistake everyday gardener, they put their corn out or maybe their lettuce you know, earliest they can get in and they just rush it in the tomatoes go in early.

Think about what our May in our June.

Certainly May has been the last few years.

cold and wet.

Yes.

cucurbits.

Like what hot and dry day don't want anything to do with that early spring weather.

So get your flowerbeds in Yes, get your earlier later, the better for cucurbits they play catch up really well, when it's like putting them in, you know, mid June, even late June just depends.

And then the space is a lot of times what people have an issue with.

I don't have a big garden for a pumpkin or squash or whatever to grow it again, get rid of the barrier.

Think outside the box.

So do you have a fence that this climber could climb on?

Do you have an old tree that's a little bit uglier on its way out?

That it could go up?

They love growing vertically?

Do you have an old TV tower?

Like how cool would that be?

To have one of those Seminoles showing that cool vine and the stem hanging down?

You know, I've seen it or even thought of it on like a mailbox area.

There's gourds that are smaller little bush plants, patio pots, there's some good do some Yeah, like a lot of the acorn squash, even the buttercups come in a semi bush or a bush habit.

So those could easily go into just a normal patio pot, I'd put three seeds, maybe five to start with, then them out to two plants, and then just feed them like you normally would.

And you know, watch them literally grow and produce food for you.

So and so they're not hard to grow pretty low maintenance.

Yeah, you're gonna you know, you want some kind of pest application, whether it'd be an organic thing or seven, like the powder.

Super easy.

The cucumber beetles will cut you know, the little teeny guys, they'll kind of wreak a little bit havoc, but especially if it's not a big area, you can certainly take care of that.

The only thing that would be the worst is the vine bore.

And that's when you've we've all come out and you see these beautiful zucchinis and then the next morning, one of your three looks like you know, it stayed out too late the night before.

So and it's done, it is done and the but the roots are gooey, and you just kind of pull the whole thing up and think what happened that was a vine borax, and I and so that is really hard to deal with the way you have to do it.

And I hate to say this, but it's rotation crop rotation.

You're supposed to get off of that property with your cucurbits for seven years.

Oh, wow.

One season?

Yes.

Yeah, you have a mind bore problem.

You need to get off of it.

And let that vine borer just kind of whittle through and deal with it because if you keep planting cucurbits into that same spot, you're gonna still had the same issue.

Now.

You could put a pot with new soil right on top of it and probably be okay.

But it's that soil borne buying.

So you got to kind of keep patch moving, right?

So rotate it with your corn, your beans, your cucurbits.

You know, back in the back in the, you know, the days of the Native Americans where you'd have the three sisters, you do you grew the corn up right back then beans were runner beans, so they would use the corn almost as a trellis.

And then your ground cover.

Squash?

Yes, right?

Yeah, so you've got all three of those living in the same exact spot.

Nowadays we have our cornfield here, our bean field hanger for me.

But back in the day, when things were, I think maybe a little more intelligent, even, they grew up all together, and they really worked together.

Because one shader that the the weeds one was holding up the other one, the beans, were fixating the nitrogen for the corn, you know, it's all symbiotic working together.

So why not get back to that in some little backyard, you know, kind of good harmony, really interested in that.

And I would encourage people to, to do that.

The other thing that people think is, oh, I'm going to take the seeds of this and grow it.

And you could however, these all grew all together in my patch.

So they've all been cross pollinated.

So these seeds have been predetermined to what they are.

And it was how they got pollinated.

So for instance, if you have a zucchini and a pumpkin growing together, the seeds inside of those for next year, could very easily be a pumpkin Genie or a zoo kitten or whatever, you know, it's a mix of the two.

It's not what you want.

It's not pure.

So that's where isolation comes into play.

You need to be a half a mile from the nearest cucurbit in the same species in order to get pure true Yes, true.

Yeah.

Or you buy new seed every year.

Yes.

Okay.

Now we talked about other things that you guys grow out here.

You've got lovely moms, and it's fall as a perfect time of year for those so let's go check out some of the moms that's good.

Alright, so we talked about pumpkins cucurbits are not the only thing grown here on the farm.

You guys have a beautiful selection of moms.

Yeah, thank you.

Well, diversity is kind of in the old jeans, right?

So we have all different shapes, sizes, colors.

This is one plant that comes in as like a rooted cutting about as big as my pinky, usually the first week of June.

So we have two weeks of Hmong potting, and they go right regrown right here by the bakery, you go right out on the mum lot and we've got an irrigation system and we do a fertilizer injector system where it's pressurized.

And we water and fertilize every single day.

Or the moms from the first of June until we sell the last one about how many would you say come through here and we grow 5400 Moms 400 moms and are there different varieties?

Are they just different colors?

There are different varieties they're all female names typically so Valerie and spicy Cheryl and sparkling Cheryl so like Cheryl is usually a pink variety but then they've kind of done an offshoot of that and so yeah, we have different like everything else we planted we get early season mid season late season colors so we try to have yellows from beginning to end and corals and pinks and you know, the purple varieties that have come in the last few years are in red.

And just so eye popping it's not necessarily that a terminal color that you'd be used to but man does it really pop yes and the ones with like the the dots in the center with different coloration I mean they're just he like you said here lately the colors have just kind of exploded.

What's the growth?

Like if I were to buy these How long do they keep on the porch before it because they last after are good after frost?

Yeah, yeah, in fact, you know, I've seen him look good on people's porches or whatever till November, the frost would kind of you know, cut them back a little bit and brown them out.

So you just throw a little towel over it or something like that if there's a big threat of frost, but making sure their water these take a lot of water.

So it's that trick of you know, any house plan or anything like that, where you kind of ignore it.

And then after three days, you it looks dry, and it's gonna be hard to get you're trying to play catch up.

Yes.

So getting water on them and keeping them watered.

And then as long as you keep them out of the frost, they can easily last into this forgotten holiday called Thanksgiving.

Because people are so fast to go to Christmas.

And that's another thing that we fight around here with all the carpets in the food is like don't let Halloween be the end.

You know, don't close the door on what is Thanksgiving, which is really truly the celebration of the harvest.

Right?

Don't be so fast to get that big blowup Santa's out like so.

With your you know, Thanksgiving thing sometimes I cheat because I don't you know, it's kind of sad to watch everything die.

So I'll pull them close to the house really, really close to the porch just so I can hang on to them for a week or so longer before the cold takes and these are hardy moms but like any gardener knows, that's kind of a suggestion.

imams are very temperamental.

And based on color based on wear on your house outside, warm facing little microclimate.

Do you mulch it?

Do you cut it back?

I mean, I've done everything I've told people everything.

The main thing is the heaving like the freezing and fine, it can take the cold, it's just when it freezes and thaws, it lifts up a little bit.

And then the next time it lifts up more, so then all of a sudden, you're above the ground level, and then when it gets zapped, then you've got problems.

So if you can keep it frozen, it's fine.

If you can keep it from freezing by putting a lot of leaves and things like I like keeping the branches on, even when they've died out.

And then just raking in a bunch of leaves around it.

It might look unsightly for a little while.

But more than likely in March, you'll have a better chance of getting that little crown lying around to come back.

Yeah.

peeking out of the leaves there.

Exactly.

Excellent.

Alright, let's go take a look at the patch.

And I want to talk some more about the history and kind of the mission here because you're really big about reconnecting people to the earth, reconnecting people to the roots.

And so I would love to go see a growing patch.

Alright, sounds good.

Okay.

Okay, so our last stop here on our grand tour of the pumpkin Oasis, is the Children's Garden.

Love this, actually.

And we've seen a ton of kids, lots of school groups out here today.

Why is it so important to get these kids out here and get them hands on?

Well, I just think they don't get an opportunity to be like hands on a farm, like we used to.

And I'm talking years back, you know, used to be when I was in the, you know, soil science class or something.

And they said back in the early 1900s, over 80% of the US population had a direct connection to the land.

So 80 out of 100 people grew up on a farm, grandma had a farm, grandpa, whatever, now less than 2% of the US population.

So two out of 100 even know where one is or what it looks like or any so we have 98 out of 100 people out there that have no connection.

And I think that one, it's reality.

And two, I think there's still something longing.

I think there's something I think you're seeing this today, people kind of relax when they come on the farm.

Right.

And we are a legit production farm.

Right?

We're sixth generation now with my kids.

You know, we're still production based.

Everything's grown here.

We've got, you know, a little nod to the animal diversity.

We used to grow corn, soybeans, as well.

But now it's just cucurbits.

So we're all cucurbits the whole time.

How did your family make that transition?

Okay, yeah.

So we started in 1989.

Well, in the mid 80s, I was just a little guy with three brothers, and farming this bad really bad in the 80s, several droughty years very low prices.

That's when a lot of people lost their family farm in the 80s.

So people either went even more into debt and tried to get bigger to cover, they had to sell the farm or then diversify or find some way to supplement right.

So I my parents went back to work in education subbed and things like that.

And we started this pumpkin patch.

What is now the Great Pumpkin Patch.

So we always grew pumpkins, we had them in the backyard, you know, and there's a fascination with kids and pumpkins.

Yeah, I don't know what it is.

I don't know how to describe it.

But you still see it to this day.

Big kids turn into little kids.

You know, I saw a woman yesterday as 80 plus, and I've never seen so many pumpkins in my life, you know, such a fun reaction to this vegetable.

And then when we can open people's eyes to the diversity, then all of a sudden, I think this connections, and these experiences can get a little bit deeper and can kind of put a perspective on what it is that is still reality.

It's still seasonal, there's still some truth to agriculture and how these things are produced because you go and think of other places you can buy a pumpkin, you know, they're in a cardboard box on the sidewalk of a great big box store, right?

There's no experience there, right?

The product is maybe there but the experience is not.

So you know, we pride ourselves on providing a safe place for everyone to experience the harvest season and to connect to the land and each other.

And so we've got that happening on a daily basis.

aces, one instance at a time with different generations and the different groups of people and showcasing the diversity of the pumpkin family is right in the middle of it.

And you know, I wanted to mention you were kind of literally born for this, right?

Your birthday is October 26.

And that falls on national pumpkin day.

I mean, any better than a crazy full circle?

For sure.

Yeah.

Well, thank you so much for opening your home, your farm your your business and your passion to us.

We really appreciate it.

I'm sure our viewers will appreciate that.

And if you have any questions or want some more information about the Great Pumpkin Patch, you can send us an email to your garden@gmail.com or just look up the patch.

What's the website 200 acres.com The 200 acres.com Thank you so much Mac.

We really appreciate it and thank you for watching and we will see you next time.

Good night.