Pumpkin patches growing in the area

Fall is here again and that means pumpkin patches in the area are starting up.

Chinook is hosting a pumpkin patch at Finley's Garden by the Water Plant located at 400 Indiana Street.

Ken Finley of Chinook is the organizer of the pumpkin patch.

It will be open Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

All proceeds from the pumpkin patch will be donated to the Blaine County Library and other children's programs.

Some have already gone on, with events in Havre and Big Sandy last weekend.

Big Sandy's Pearson Pumpkin Patch started last weekend.

Raynee Pearson runs the pumpkin patch with her family.

"We do the pumpkin patch to add a community event to our area," she said. "When we first opened the pumpkin patch to the public, there were hardly any patches around Havre or Big Sandy."

She said this is the eighth year her family has put this pumpkin patch on, but has only been open to the public for five years as it used to be only open for the schools in the area like Winifred and Big Sandy.

She and her family run the pumpkin patch - her; her mother, Gay; her father, Ron along with their neighbors and a friend,  Sandee Tebeau, she said.

The pumpkin patch includes not only pumpkins, which are for sale from $5 to $20 and pie pumpkins are also available, but duck races, a hay maze Ron Pearson puts together every year, animals such as kittens, chickens, alpacas, cows and more.

She added that the family plants about 300 seeds of pumpkins each year.

She said she loves seeing everyone come out and have so much fun. 

"It's just a great little community event for people to come out and see stuff they don't get to see every day," she said.

Over the weekend, she said, there were more than 400 people who showed up, which she said was their biggest weekend ever.

The pumpkin patch is planned to continue on some dates in October and will be  dependent on weather, she said.

Admissions is $5 per person and free for children 2 and younger, with cash sales only.

The Pearson Pumpkin Patch is located at 1705 Halter Ranch Trail, Big Sandy.

Cadence Kallenberger had her pumpkin patch sale near Havre last weekend, the fourth year in a row.

"This year's patch went pretty good, considering the amount of pumpkins that we grew this year," Kallenberger said. 

She normally plants more than a thousand pumpkins a year, she said.

"This year was not a good growing season for me," Kallenberger said. "My parents tell me that is part of being a farmer and to take the good with the bad. It doesn't make it easier though.

"I sold out of all my pumpkins (Sunday)," she added. "I feel bad that I wasn't able to grow what I had hoped, but hoping next year is a better year for me."

She said she continues to do the pumpkin patch for a few reasons. 

One of them is that she still has to pay off a loan she took out to pay the watering system she put in - before that she had to water every plant by hand - and the second reason is because she likes to supply her community with home-grown pumpkins that they can come and pick themselves.

She enjoys that she gets to let people in her community come out, pick their own pumpkin and have a good time doing it, she said. 

She plans on doing the pumpkin patch again next year and to continue doing it till further notice, she added.

"All of the money that I make I get to keep, but I also have to get rid of the cost of seeds, electricity and anything that needed to (be) fixed that year," Kallenberger said. "In the end, I would like money to go to college, but still paying my bills now.