Jerry Crownover –Pumpkin everything season

just a thoughtWhat’s On Your Mind, Ozarks?

Life Is Simple By Jerry Crownover Life is Simple By Jerry CrownoverI’m probably one of the few people in the world who absolutely detests the taste and/or aroma of pumpkin spice. I always have. Needless to say, my taste buds and olfactory sensory neurons are abused every year, during this period to post-Thanksgiving.

It seems that every café, restaurant and fast-food joint is adding the pumpkin spice flavor to every single item on Jerry Crownover farms their menu. You can select from pumpkin spice coffee, in Lawrence County. He pumpkin spice ice cream, pumpkin spice soda pop and is a former professor of pumpkin spice _________ (fill in the blank). Last week, I Agriculture Education at even saw a display in the local convenience store for pump- Missouri State University, kin spice-flavored beer. No thank you to all the above. and is an author and

I can remember the time when an old girlfriend’s mother professional speaker. invited me over to have supper with them for an evening, To contact Jerry, go to about this time of year. It was a wonderful spread of food ozarksfn.com and click and everything I ate was delicious, until she brought out on ‘Contact Us.’ dessert, and it was…you guessed it…pumpkin pie. I really wanted to make a good impression (the girl was really pretty), so I eagerly accepted the treat and fought the gag reflex with all my might, somehow managing to get it all down. I raved about it the rest of the evening in a scene that was certainly deserving of an Oscar nomination. All I can say is, thank goodness the pumpkin taste was diluted by a 3-inch layer of whipped cream.

Even though I despise the taste of pumpkin, I used to love growing them. As a kid, the pumpkin business was one of the few ways I had, to earn spending money that I could call my own. Once the cornfield was hoed and my dad had cultivated it for the last time (this was long before anyone in our area used herbicides to control weeds), my older sister and I would take pumpkin seeds that were saved from last year’s crop, and carefully plant a multitude of “hills” amongst the rows of corn. By the time the corn was ready to harvest, there was always a bumper crop of bright orange, future jack-o-lanterns and pumpkin pies.

— Continued on Page 5

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About the Cover

Lucas Crutcher began showing cattle at a young age. See more on page 8.

Photo by Cheryl Kepes

Ozarks Farm & Neighbor accepts story suggestions from readers. Story information appears as gathered from interviewees. Ozarks Farm & Neighbor assumes no responsibility for the credibility of statements made by interviewees. © Copyright Ozarks Farm & Neighbor, Inc., 2020. All rights reserved. Printed in USA.

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