Pumpkin patch harvested in a hurry

Emergency picking was far from sweet, but the owners and crew at Sweet Pickin's Pumpkin Patch saved a good part of the crop from freezing.

"It's not good but it could have been worse," owner Debbie DeVries said Tuesday. "We're happy with what we have left."

Located on Columbia Falls Stage Road, Sweet Pickin's Pumpkin Patch offers the classic October outing with a train to take families out into the field to pick the perfect pumpkin from the patch.

From a business perspective, the recent record-setting cold arrived at the worst possible time. The cold wave included three days of record-low, single-digit temperatures in the Flathead Valley.

"We were really only beginning," DeVries said. "We had a good crop of pumpkins this year - several thousand."

DeVries said the farm launched a massive rescue operation a little more than a week ago when the weather forecast first predicted super-cold temperatures. She said the frost arrived on nearly the same day as last year when it got down to 16 or 17 degrees.

DeVries said their neighbors Bob and Sherry Hooper of Hooper's Garden Center helped them out in 2008 with a crew to help pick and pile up pumpkins.

"This year, we were able to borrow a piece of equipment - a box loader," DeVries said. "We had about 10 kids picking every day after school. It was a lot of hard work."

She said they stashed three trailer-loads of pumpkins in barns and one in a garage. The rest were put in piles surrounded with bales of hay.

DeVries credited one of the workers with coming up with the idea of covering them with the same insulated tarps used over fresh concrete to keep it from freezing.

"We rented some from Midway Rental," she said. "We may buy some for next year."

A Laurel-area pumpkin patch reportedly lost 50 percent of its crop during the cold snap. Jerry Krug of J & K Farms told The Associated Press that he picked some pumpkins and piled others up surrounded by hay and covered with tarps - but only was able to protect only half his yield.

Laurel is about 15 miles from Billings.

DeVries and her husband, Terry, started growing pumpkins and developing a family oriented destination on Columbia Falls Stage Road about eight years ago. As with other farm operations, weather can make or break their profits each year.

"It's always a gamble," DeVries said. "We just sell from here and we get rid of most of them."

A booming, munching deer population in their area provides yet another profit hazard. She said they counted about four deer when they started but now the herd numbers about 30.

DeVries said she has no worries about unsold pumpkins.

"With so many deer out here, they'll be gone," she said.

Sweet Pickin's Pumpkin Patch grows pumpkins on 8 acres. The DeVries family plants its own five acres as well as three acres on neighboring land that belongs to the Hoopers.

Even though the cold weather wiped out those picturesque fields laden with pumpkins, DeVries expects the public will still come out to enjoy a fall outing picking pumpkins from their many piles.

"The public is very understanding - you do what you have to do," she said. "It's still pretty out here and we'll have a lot of pumpkins."

They charge $5 for the visit to the patch that includes several attractions such as a petting zoo, the train and barrel cart rides The patch sells pumpkins for 25 cents a pound and offers a wide variety of ornamental gourds and squashes.

Their Web site, sweetpickinspumpkinpatch.com, shows other activities such as a trike maze for both youngsters and adults.

"It's geared to young families," DeVries said. "It's for all ages but it appeals the most to the younger set.

Sweet Pickin's Pumpkin Patch, northeast of Kalispell on Columbia Falls Stage Road, is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. For more information call 752-2359.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.