Settting our new picks out after our fall trek to the pumpkin farm, I thought it was fitting to revisit a post from October 2012 about pumpkin diversity. Happy Fall!
Thinking Beyond Orange
Every year about this time, my family goes in search of some pumpkins for our front porch. There are five people in our family, so we have to have at least five pumpkins. Somehow we always end up with more!
We usually go to the same farm to pick pumpkins right out of the field. But last October, I decided we’d try a different place – a small, family-owned farm that just so happened to be right around the corner from the big, commercial place we traditionally go. And there we discovered a surprising fact: pumpkins aren’t always orange!
I don’t know about you, but whenever I think of pumpkins, I think orange. So when the farmer took us into his field to look for pumpkins, I was expecting to see lots of orange. I did see orange, but I also saw white, yellow, and blue. Blue pumpkins? Who knew?
The farmer walked us through the field, pointing out the different varieties: Cinderella pumpkins, warty pumpkins, cheese pumpkins, ghost pumpkins, and many more. As you can see from the picture, we found it hard to resist bringing home a few extra pumpkins!
Going the extra mile, literally, to find a new spot to pumpkin pick is much like working a little harder to find a fresh slant on a topic you’re writing about. It takes time to go beyond the obvious when you’re assigned to do a story on a popular subject like, say, Abraham Lincoln. But if you’re willing to search a bit more, chances are you’ll find some quirky, little-known fact that will make the difference between an ordinary story and an extraordinary one.
Ordinary stories, much like orange pumpkins, are easy to find. Are you ready to mix it up a bit? Go find a pumpkin that’s different. Put it where you can see it when you write. Once you go beyond orange, a whole new world of possibilities await you!
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