Chalk on the Barn Door — Daily puzzle for 2026-10-22

Medium — logic-grid deduction puzzle

On a frosty Illinois pumpkin patch in October 1994, the owner and four hired neighbours each cut one row of pumpkins for a different order.

In October 1994 the first frost turned the vines silver on a pumpkin patch outside Peoria, Illinois. Halloween was two weeks away, and orders had come in from all over town. Dale, who owned the patch, pulled on a flannel coat and went out to cut pumpkins with four neighbours hired for the day: Hannah, Lucas, Rosa and Toby. Each of the five worked one row, and every row grew a different kind of pumpkin. They cut the thick stems with short knives and stacked the pumpkins in the wagon, and everything one person cut went to a single order. By noon the fog had lifted and the numbers were chalked on the barn door, but nobody had written down who cut what. Dale wanted it all sorted out before the trucks arrived.

Clues

1. Lucas cut fewer pumpkins than Hannah did.
2. The stand order was not filled by Lucas.
3. Toby, the person who cut 20 pumpkins and the person who filled the inn order were three different people.
4. Whoever cut 25 pumpkins was not on the Howden row.
5. Dale, the one person who owned the patch, filled the inn order.
6. Only one of these was true: the person on the Jarrahdale row filled the grocer order; Lucas filled the diner order; the person on the Jarrahdale row cut 25 pumpkins.
7. If Hannah did not cut 39 pumpkins, then Hannah was on the Howden row.
8. Just two of these were true: Lucas cut 25 pumpkins; whoever cut 20 pumpkins filled the stand order; the diner order was filled by the person who cut 40 pumpkins.
9. The Sugar Pie row was worked by Dale, the one owner among them.
10. No two of these were the same person: the one on the Lumina row, the one who filled the church order and the one who cut 40 pumpkins.
11. 19 pumpkins were cut on the Jarrahdale row.
12. Whoever worked the Cinderella row cut 40 pumpkins.

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