It all started with a pumpkin.  I have grown watermelons for several years and, if you check out our blog page, you can see that I have started the tradition competitively with my son over the summer.  Our melons didn't do so hot this year, but one crop that took off in a surprising manner, happened to be some pumpkin seeds, I acquired from a pumpkin my mother-in-law had thrown out.

I planted three seeds with my melons, in the egg cartons.  All three pumpkin seeds sprouted incredibly quickly.  Two plants took off once in the ground. Im not sure what happened to the third, it literally just disappeared one night.  But, before I knew it, I was watching pumpkins pop up, one by one all across the massive and beautiful vines.  Tiny little yellow globes replaced yellow flowers and rapidly became big, red orange cinderella pumpkins.

Now, cinderella pumpkins are a type of breed in the PIE PUMPKIN category, so I could not let these delicious fruits of my labor go to waste.  Hence, A Painted Pumpkin was born.  I created "Halloween in July" as an annual fundraising event, and thought up #bakepiesnotkids as a slogan to raise awareness to hot car deaths and the delicious pumpkin pies and related garden products that will help fund the Painted Pumpkin movement.

Check out the green ring on the second generation pumpkins I planted!