Harvest Artists

Hahnville family keeps pumpkin painting tradition alive for over 50 years

For almost 50 years one Hahnville family has kept a Halloween tradition alive.

The Zeringues own a farm in Taft and began painting pumpkins one year on a whim. Since then, every member of the family has painted intricately-designed pumpkins each year and even won competitions with them.

Each pumpkin takes about 6-8 hours to paint and carve or add decorations.

Jamie Zeringue Hue said that the tradition started with her grandfather and the French Market in New Orleans.

“One time we had a load of pumpkins that wasn’t selling…so he took out a pocket knife and started carving,” Hue said. Before long, a crowd surrounded him and he came home telling the family how popular his carved pumpkin had been.

Hue said that people would come from all over the country, some while on vacation, to buy a painted pumpkin from the Zeringues’ roadside stand.

Pretty soon, the family had a pumpkin-painting assembly line going on after every harvest.

“The whole family would get involved,” Hue said.

In fact, the whole family got together at one point to teach a St. Charles Community Education class about the skill.

In more recent years, Hue has won the Audubon Zoo’s pumpkin carving contest with an intricately designed insect-themed pumpkin.

Dale Zeringue, Hue’s mother, said that it was always important to have every person in the family feel included.

Her advice to aspiring pumpkin artists is to start small and allow children to have fun.

“Just let the kids go – give them a pumpkin and some paint and let them do their thing,” Zeringue said.

Zeringue and Hue said that other fall vegetables, such as squash, can also be good canvases.

These days, Hue makes it a point to spend some time each Halloween teaching her children how to paint pumpkins.

“I do it with the kids just so that the family tradition doesn’t die,” she said.