Pumpkin Patch

Pumpkins or as the spaniards knew them, calabazas, were a common garden perennial all over southern california in the late 1800s. Modern day Calabasas is named for them as the early history and legend of Los Angeles talk of a spilled cart coming from Agoura on its way to market downtown and the ground covered with broken pumpkins and their seeds. Every year thereafter and on the spots where the broken produce was thrown to clear the El Camino Real or King's Road, pumpkins would appear every summer and line the dirt highway.

The Allens wanted something that would grow under the filtered light of the oak trees on this sloped part of the property extending from New York Drive from Pepper to Allen. In your minds eye, remove all of the homes and picture only the oak trees under a late September sun with clusters of pumpkins brightening orange in their favored spots. Maybe they planted the halloween seeds that have become the celebration of all hallow's eve on Pepper Street to this day as children and parents come from blocks and miles around to celebrate and collect treats...