Velvet Pumpkins by Daria Knowles

What Makes Hot Skwash Pumpkins Top Notch?

The stems, naturally.

It's what makes each beautiful velvet pumpkin unique and gives it personality.  Some look spunky and sassy, while others appear solid and traditional.  Selecting the perfect stem for each pumpkin is the most exciting part of the creative process.

Short, long, skinny, thick, twisted or straight, each natural stem becomes a Hot Skwash stem after careful harvesting, cleaning, and sorting each fall.  Its dirty work, during some of the worst of our Pacific Northwest weather, and it all must be completed in just a few short weeks around Halloween.  This year, Mother Nature provided an abundance of beautiful stems.  Deep in the farthest corner of a field, a community of super-sized stems waited just for us.  In fact, these mammoth stems inspired Daria to create a super jumbo-sized velvet pumpkin crowned, the Limited Edition (LE).

Check with your favorite Hot Skwash retailer, (or try the storefinder) to see if they have any LE in stock.  But hurry, because these beauties truly are limited, and once they are gone, we have to wait until next year to see what our family of farmers can collect.

Ready for Fall

It's been a good Spring and we know the Summer is not over yet...but we all know FALL is coming!  There is a bunch of exciting news coming from Hot Skwash and a few new friends are helping to spread the word.  Hot Skwash got a great write up in Country Business and just recently we were featured in GiftBEAT, "...the pumpkins...sold 250 pieces and calls the line (Hot Skwash) her "find" of the season." 

Hot Skwash Hits Saks 5th Again

The Hot Skwash crew teamed up again with our dearest friends at R. Blooms to present velvet pumpkins and Shiitake silk mushrooms at Saks.  
As part of the "Very Engaging Bridal Event" at Bridgeport Village, spring colors burst from gorgeous ornate flower arrangements, complementing our delicate dupioni silks and fine velvets.

This fantastic display towered twelve feet into the air, welcoming brides-to-be into Saks' beautiful store.  More stunning photos to come...

Hot Skwash face-to-face

The Hot Skwash team wrapped up our first big show in Atlanta.  Although exhausted, we are overjoyed with the experience.   We met our wonderful customers face-to-face, scream-to-scream, hug-to-hug--from Michael and Alan from J'Adore to Kathleen from Gethsemane to the Purple Rose crew.  After reveling in the velvet pumpkin craze of last year, we planned for the future success with Shiitake in 2011.  Hot Skwash is really hot--now in Canada too!  And who knew Atlanta had such fantastic food?  We over-indulged in the finest culinary creations of Atlanta (One Midtown Kitchen, Two Urban Licks, Steel, Marlow's tavern to name a few.  What fun!!! Now we venture back to Oregon to making wonderful velvet pumpkins and Shiitake silk mushrooms bringing joy to people all over the world.

Shiitake Silk Mushrooms

Introducing Shiitake silk mushrooms by Hot Skwash!  We are here at the Atlanta International Gift and Home Furnishings Market, creating our cozy space to display our velvet pumpkins and new Shiitake to the world.  The show starts tomorrow and we are ready!

 
If you haven’t been to the Hot Skwash webpage recently, you’ll want to check out the new Shiitake gallery and all the new colors of velvet pumpkins and silk mushrooms for 2011!  We also have three new online velvet pumpkin arrangements for people who haven’t found a store with our new store finder.  Look for another posting about the show later this weekend.  We are making lots of new friends, seeing wonderful, creative designs and spreading the word about Hot Skwash. 

Harvest

We were worried.

Summer was cold and rainy and the harvest came late.  A pessimistic fog lingered in our farmers' minds about--the stems.  If it's too wet, the stems don't firm up enough.  If it's too late, they may never fully ripen.  These are the stems that we cherish, that our farmers proudly grow, that embody the unique personality of our velvet pumpkins here at Hot Skwash.  No worries, for the fog has cleared.

The stems are wonderous and plentiful!  As always, gleaning bold, curious stems from those rich, muddy fields is a dirty job, but we are just the ones to do it! 

Hot Skwash Spirit

What do "Spider Mom", "Lady Gagga" and the "Pumpkin Queen" all have in common?  They pour their hearts and souls into making our little velvet pumpkins.  Halloween week is a whirlwind of school harvest parties with mom's going in and out (in costumes and not), making pumpkins and volunteering at local schools to share the holiday excitement. After a spooky night of ghosts, goblins and devils (large and small), we return to putting the Hot Skwash spririt into each and every velvet pumpkin.  Now time to harvest the stems for next year.

Happy Halloween!

Hummingbird House Happiness

Serendipity...now.

As our good friend of some 27 years is finally getting married this weekend in Phoenix, we hopped down to the Valley of the Sun for the festivities.  Only 90 minutes north emerges the serene city of Sedona with towering red rocks of awe-inspiring gradure.  The Hot Skwash crew took this opportunity to celebrate the velvet pumpkins with our friends at Hummingbird House.What an incredible store!  With a delicate balance of colors and textures, the spirit of Fall permeated the wonderful space.  Come for the pumpkins, stay for the prickly pear lemonade!  Special thanks for hosting us!

Arts in the Forest, 2010

Our local festival, Arts in the Forest, kicks off our season here in West Linn, Oregon.  The weather finally warmed up but the towering pine trees kept our velvet pumpkins and our Hot Skwash crew cool.

Visitors were wowed by our new colors and could not resist picking up our little babies (not by the stem please!), squeezing them and taking them home.

Pumpkins for your "Pumpkin"

Red, red, red.  There is something about that rich, deep red velvet that says, "I love you...I really love you." 

We love the red.  Sure it was nice during Christmas, but it was almost too luxurious and decadent.  Now on Valentine's day, when you truly want to spoil your love, your special Valentine, this red is the deepest expression.