When the Moon Was Ours

Pumpkins are a motif throughout the novel, from the hand pollination of the pumpkins on the Bonner farm, to the traditional riverside lighting ceremony, to “Lady Jane Grey,” Peyton Bonner’s prized pumpkin that she carried everywhere with her as a child. The pollination brush that Sam uses in his farm work leads to his first kiss with Miel—the tipping point between their childhood friendship and the bloom of first love. While pumpkins are conventionally thought of as being uniformly orange and grown for a singular purpose, the novel takes time to explore the wide range of pumpkin variations and some of the magic that leads to their growth.

The first pumpkin the reader is introduced to in the novel is Peyton’s childhood companion: “a small gray pumpkin that, in that light, looked almost blue. She had it cradled in one arm, and with the other hand was petting it like a bird” (4). Immediately, Anna-Marie McLemore introduces the reader to a visual of a pumpkin different from the traditional orange archetype. More images of specific varietals are introduced throughout the narrative: “There was no orange like the girls’ hair or the Cinderella pumpkins, flat and deep-ribbed. No deep green or gold or blue-gray like the few rare ones dotting the fields” (40); “Often, she brought home blue-rinded Jarrahdale pumpkins and deep orange Rouge Vif d’Etampes” (51); “Instead of their shine, she saw the cream gray of the Estrella pumpkins or the deep blue-green of Autumn Wings” (54); “Their colors were so deep that at first she thought they were the knobby, almost-black rinds of the kind sold in the grocery store as Marina di Chioggia or Musquée de Provence” (75). Each of these names mentioned is a real-life, rare variety of pumpkin or squash that’s grown for culinary or decorative purposes. McLemore’s lyrical, sensory descriptions reveal an unexpectedly rich spectrum of pumpkins in every color of the rainbow that, the novel suggests, is its own kind of magic.

McLemore describes Sam’s hand pollination of the pumpkins with a tone of wonder at the intricacy of botanical alchemy; Sam’s job is to go to each pumpkin flower with a paintbrush and carry pollen from one blossom to another, ensuring a fruit will grow at harvest time. Sam sees this as a connection to his family heritage of harvesting saffron from crocuses in Pakistan, while Miel sees it as an extraordinary act of Transformation. In reality, pumpkins can be pollinated by human hands or by bees. However, bee pollination is less consistent and reliable, particularly in areas with declining bee populations. For this reason, jobs like Sam’s exist exactly as described: A worker goes to each pumpkin blossom with a cotton swab or paint brush and manually transfers the pollen from the male flower to the female flower—an incredibly labor-intensive process. In the novel, Sam uses his pollination brushes to mimic nature and create new life—similar to the way he uses paint brushes to create the microcosmic moons that he hangs throughout the town. The profusion of varietals in the Bonner farm emphasizes the attention to detail and artistry necessary for such a result, revealing more about Sam’s character.