Beat the frost, pick your pumpkins

BEAVER CREEK, MN (KELO) — It’s still pumpkin patch season for many parts of KELOLAND, but how long that time lasts is weather-dependent.

“We’ve got a good crop of really beautiful pumpkins,” Sean Mcfarland said.

Mcfarland is the owner of the Blackshire Farms pumpkin patch in Beaver Creek, Minnesota, just 20 miles east of Sioux Falls.

“Growing pumpkins this year was hard. We had a lot of rain early and then a drought following the flooding,” Mcfarland said.

But he still ended up with a field of orange just in time for pumpkin patch season.

“You don’t have to pay to get in, which is great. My kids love to just run around. They can see all different types of pumpkins. They have orange, green, like all the variety,” Madison Zigeler said.

Fire risk warning across SD, how farmers can help

After visiting the patch for a few years, Zigeler decided to help out with pumpkin sales.

But the window to pick pumpkins can be shorter than what one might expect.

“A lot of people think that pumpkin patch season goes all the way up until Halloween, but it really is controlled by Mother Nature. As soon as we have some hard frost, we’re done. The pumpkins will freeze,” Mcfarland said.

Mcfarland said there are still a few good weekends left before they close up the patch for the year. But he encourages anyone who still wants to visit to come sooner rather than later.

“I have been known, if the frost comes too early, to try and get some of them together and put them in a pile and save them,” Mcfarland said.

The pumpkins that don’t sell are tilled into the field for next year’s season, something that Mcfarland is looking forward to continuing for his community.

The Blackshire Farms pumpkin patch is open in Beaver Creek, Minnesota Tuesdays through Sundays from noon to 7. Homemade honey can also be purchased. Mcfarland said a new apple cidery is scheduled to open next year for visitors to also check out.