Bumper crop of pumpkins signals winter's near
October 21, 2008
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Jim Wilkes
STAFF REPORTER
There'll be frost on the pumpkins tonight, thousands of huge, ready-to-carve jack-o-lanterns still lurking in local fields awaiting a spirited Halloween.
A cool, soggy summer of rain has produced a bumper crop of the orange autumn gourds that signal the long, downhill slide to winter.
"Last year it was so dry we had very few pumpkins," said John Downey, 60-year-old owner of Downey's Farm on Heart Lake Rd. in rural Inglewood, north of Brampton.
"But this year we've gone 180 degrees. There's lots of big size. Last year it was hard to get a big pumpkin. This year it's pretty hard to get a small one because we had so much rain."
Downey said he'll go through nearly 20,000 pumpkins this fall, from 9,000 big ones on a huge front lawn outside the farm, to 6,000 mini-pumpkins given to kids in school groups that visit during its annual Pumpkinfest and assorted hundreds of smaller pie pumpkins for home baking.
At nearby Bailey's Farm Market in Caledon, Grant Bailey has been growing thousands of pumpkins on more than eight hectares of rolling farmland since 1966.
"For us and the majority of growers, the pumpkins are large and extra-large this year," said Bailey, 67.
"With all the moisture and cooler weather, it was absolutely great growing conditions for pumpkins.
"Last year it was dry and there were a lot of small pumpkins; some growers didn't have any at all. But we were able to irrigate like hell and ended up with a decent crop.
"This year it was a better crop and we didn't have to water at all."
He sells most of his crop from a sloping hill at his market on King St. near Kennedy Rd. and wholesales others to garden centres across Ontario.
Downey said pumpkins became his primary source of income about 15 years ago.
"We got out of milking cows in 1992 and the following year we got into pumpkins big time," the burly farmer said.
But there's more to the farm than fruit and vegetables. They're heavily into what Downey calls "Agri-tainment."
During Pumpkinfest, which runs through next week, there's a corn maze to wander — some nights with flashlights — wagon rides, a boo barn, puppet show and live entertainment on weekends.
"Pumpkins are part of the changing seasons," he said. "It could be pumpkin pie, sure.
"But it signifies the end of summer, heading into fall, the leaves are turning and you've got all these bright orange pumpkins sitting out there.
"People realize it's the last hurrah before winter sets in."
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