Find out how well the pumpkin season did this year

Though candy and things that go bump in the night may be on some minds this month, for many of us the pumpkin is the centrepiece of the fall season.

So how did the pumpkin patch do this year?

We spoke with Christine Paul from Fruition Berry Farm on Hughes Road, just off highway 15 in Kingston.

“We’re having a fantastic season. We have lots of pumpkins this year,” she said.

The quantity is high and that’s for a couple of reasons. In past years, Fruition would grow about half of their gourds in another location, and then they were shipped when needed.

However, this year they grew all their pumpkins on site at the farm — hundreds of them, as far as the eye can see.

The dry and hot summer meant pollination was plentiful. This can also increase the number of pumpkins in a patch. The lack of rain, however, did keep the pumpkins from getting very big.

“Our Pumpkins didn’t get as large as they normally would but they’re a good size for carving,” Paul said. “We did get rain late in the season but by then they were pretty well ripe, a little bit too late to make them size.”

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Crowds of pumpkin pickers flock to the farm every season, and not just on weekends. The farm hosts school field trips.

“We teach them all about pumpkins,” Paul said. “The life cycle of the pumpkin and how they grow, and they get to experience that first hand at the pumpkin patch when they pick their own pumpkin and take it home with them.”

Central Public School teacher Andrew Cotton believes wholeheartedly in the value of the visit. “This is a great curriculum link to science and learning about living things, which is what we are learning now in Grades 1 and 2.”

Cotton also knows it wouldn’t be possible without Paul and her family opening their gates to the students.

“She does make the link between the classroom and the outdoor experience,” Cotton said. “She’s that middle person who really makes the learning come alive for our students.”