PERKY PUMPKINS PLENTIFUL IN WHITEWATER

Pumpkins come in all sizes and shapes at Leonard Nothdurft's pumpkin patch near the Diversion Channel. His German ancestors planted pumpkins when they arrived in the area long ago.

In the nearby hamlet of Whitewater, Leonard Nothdurft's 1/2-acre pumpkin patch did it again -- it produced plenty of perky pumpkins to keep his nine hogs plump and ponderous.

As many as 3,000 field pumpkins, also known as cow pumpkins, are visible in the patch now that the vines have died down. The patch is near the Diversion Channel on County Road 253.

Nothdurft, 72, thinks the pumpkins he raises each year could be traced to seeds brought to the area by his German ancestors well over a hundred years ago.

"When my ancestors arrived they raised corn and pumpkins," said Nothdurft, standing in his pumpkin patch as a strong wind whipped the wilting vines. "Each fall seeds would be gathered from some pumpkins and saved for planting the next year."

Nothdurft recalls his dad always saved a sackful of seeds from the fall harvests. But there was one eight-year stretch when no pumpkins grew.

"He said that if the pumpkins didn't grow that year, it would be the ninth year in a row that we had no crop of them.

"And if we didn't raise any that year we'd be out of seeds. But we got lucky and had some pumpkins that year."

Nothdurft also recalls his dad planting pumpkins with corn. That was before machinery such as corn pickers and combines made it impossible to grow the two together.

"Dad said it didn't really make him any difference if we didn't raise pumpkins by themselves, but the vines had big leaves that would keep the ground around the corn so it wouldn't dry out," he said.

Nothdurft and his ancestors have always fed pumpkins to their hogs and cattle. He said his grandfather would say that a 20-bushel wagon load of pumpkins was worth 100 pounds of tankage -- a mixture of meat and bones from a packing house, which was used to feed hogs.

With that in mind, Nothdurft says he sells his excess pumpkins for $25 a pickup truck load.

He says pumpkin seeds have medicinal properties:

"Years ago an oldtimer told me that a hog would lose its worms from eating pumpkin seeds. When you go to a butcher place and you know some people hadn't fed their hogs pumpkins, their hogs all had worms.

"That man also told me the way they would worm their dogs was to cook pumpkin seeds with water and mix it with the dog food. I don't know if that's really so or just one of the old stories."

Pumpkin patches hold a special fascination for kids -- the various sizes, shapes and colors of the pumpkins, not all are bright orange, are like candy to the eye, he says.

"Some kids were here the other day and they ran through the patch. They really thought it was fun to see all these things. One kid said he saw a pumpkin that looked like a strawberry," Nothdurft said, laughing.

Nothdurft also plants water melons and this year one weighed 97 pounds. Although he might not plant watermelons next year, he'll again plant pumpkins.

"When the vines die down after the first frost or two, you can see what you've got. I get them in all sizes, and I just like looking at them."