Fall is in the air, meaning pumpkin patches in our area will soon be full of people trying to pick out the perfect one. But the early spring and hot summer have some people concerned about this years crop. No need to worry.
Dave Pargoria at Helene's Hilltop Orchard has been growing pumpkins for over 30 years. He says this growing season was especially good for pumpkins. Which is a bit surprising considering the havoc our early spring reeked on the apple crop.
"They're actually ahead of schedule. Normally, I wouldn't expect them to be turning orange until right about now, but realistically they were turning orange about two weeks ago. So all that warm weather actually helped them," Pargoria said.
Pagoria said another reason the pumpkin crop thrived while the apples dies is because pumpkins aren't planted until May. That means they didn't have to endure the erratic winter.
Even though most of the pumpkins at Helene's have turned orange already, they're still not quite ready to pick. Helene's will, however, open their pumpkin patch ahead of schedule. This year it will open on September 29th instead of October 1st.
