In Cochran County, a Morton citizen has been sharing his plethora of crops – big to little, fruits to vegetables – with the city’s community this season.
Gene Lynskey, retired off the farm, runs a hunting guide service and does custom farmwork nowadays out of the city.
Back in the 80s, he said he started fooling around with growing pumpkins, taking his farm wages to Floydada to buy them.
However, after some time in the past selling the plants in a variety of places across the county, he said this season’s growth was just for the fun of him and the public.
“It just makes you smile when you see a pumpkin,” Lynskey said, “it really does.”
He said a variety of the crop are available to grow thanks to the accessibility of the seeds on the internet, and his garden reflected it.
About 60 different varieties of gourds and pumpkins were part of his growth, he said. They included miniature black pumpkins, orange “jack be littles”, “baby boos”, Ten Commandment and dinosaur gourds, among other types and fruits.
“There’s just some awesome names,” Lynskey said.
For the giant crops that got up to hundreds of pounds, he said it starts with the genetics of the seed. But tender loving and fertile ground is what can get them up to size.
When the pumpkins are done growing in his garden, they can be found out in the community. He said they’ve been taken to the courthouse square to share with the public and passed out at a Cochran County hospital, among other places.
“Lost a lot of money, but sure grew a lot of smiles,” Lynskey said.
It wasn’t an easy year to grow the plants, he said. With the dry and warm weather in the area during August, it wasn’t a time to be growing a plant made of water. But he felt fortunate to grow what he did.
“It was a lot of hard work, but I got a lot of enjoyment out of it,” Lynskey said. “And seemed like a lot of people did too. They was really excited about it, it made me feel good.”
Regarding his giant pumpkins – some weighing over 400 pounds – he said, if possible, he’d like to give the seeds away for a new community event he had in mind.
“…Help the people grow them and start trying to, maybe, have a contest on the courthouse square,” Lynskey said.
Being positive and thinking ahead, Lynskey set next September for the largest pumpkin contest for Cochran County and Hockley County. He plans to hold the competition a week before the South Plains Fair.
Aside from the largest pumpkin competition, there will be other categories in each county that will include all produce.
The goal is to have the winners within each county earn prizes and compete in an overall competition between Cochran and Hockley winners.
For those who would like free seeds or assistance, they can contact Lynskey at 806-893-4766.