Pumpkin Social a smashing success

Children and elders alike enjoyed the Department of Plant Sciences' 2023 Pumpkin Social, the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic the annual even has returned in-person. At least 400 people attended, said organizer Vincent Vasquez, the department's new administrative assistant. Special thanks go to the helpers including co-organizer Susan Hendrickson, the department's administrative assistant for purchasing. Attendees included 50 volunteers, who directed parkers, flipped burgers, served up beans and buns, crafted with the kids, tractored the hay wagon, set up tables and stashed away chairs.

Note for next year: Bring grocery sacks and your collapsible wagon to haul back the treasures you'll find in the field near the department's Agronomy Headquarters. Pumpkins big and fat, short and squat, small and sweet saw competition in the fall splendor pageant from gourds with ridges and warts, crooks and crannies, all in orange, yellow, green, pale and gold.

Offering salutations to guests were inflatable goblins and a display of gorgeous gourds and splendid squash set out on bountiful bales -- all the produce from Plant Sciences fields. Warm fall weather, those delicious lingering-harvest days, heightened the sense of celebration.

Thanks to all who came out and all who helped, reminding us of the abundance we enjoy in our Department of Plant Sciences family!

Photos available

See our Instagram and Facebook pages (@ucdavisplants) for more photos from this and other events this week.

If our communications specialist Trina Kleist took your family's picture and you'd like a larger-resolution image, please email her at tkleist@ucdavis.edu