Massachusetts farmers harvest bounty of pumpkins

WESTWOOD, Mass. — They take up space, they’re prone to disease and they require lots of nutrients. A quality pumpkin crop is not easy to grow. But, it’s one of the few ways local farmers can extend the selling season into fall.

And at Bean Family Farm, it’s easy to see this was an exceptionally good year for pumpkins. Hundreds of orange, yellow and white orbs stretch down the display lot.

“We had a very, very good growing season this year,” said Chris Bean. “Quite a change from 2022 and 2023.”

In 2022, Massachusetts farmers dealt with one of the driest summers on record. In fact, in Boston, it was the driest summer in 138 years of record-keeping. On the flipside, the summer of 2023 was the second-wettest on record.

“This year, we’ve gotten just the right amount of rain, right amount of sun,” Bean said. “This heavy, wet New England soil does a little better in a slightly drier year. Because of that we’ve been blessed with a gorgeous pumpkin crop this fall.”

Bean said in his ten years of farming, he can’t remember a better growing season.

“We just finished picking tomatoes, eggplant and sweet corn,” he said. “And that’s the latest I’ve ever picked veggie crops.”

While the state Department of Agriculture doesn’t track pumpkin sales, specifically, a spokesperson tells Boston 25 News that, as part of the pick-your-own sector, pumpkins contribute to helping farmers stay in business.

And consumers seem to be snatching up the bountiful harvest. At the United Church of Christ in Medfield, their annual fundraising pumpkin patch is going through its third shipment of locally sourced pumpkins.

“We’re actually probably going for a 4th shipment of pumpkins before the end of the month,” said Minta Hissong, operations manager at UCC-Medfield. “They’re big and they look great — and there are no spots. They’re very solid pumpkins.”

Often, pumpkins are priced by the pound. And despite an abundance of the fruits this year, it doesn’t seem to be having an effect on price. Bean said their per-pound prices remain in the $.90 to $1 range.

“I wouldn’t say the price reflects a better year,” he said. “I would just say that the farmers are making out a little better than they have in years past.”

At UCC-Medfield, pumpkins are priced by size — using a measuring tape from bottom to top. Specialty pumpkins — ones with unusual shape or color — cost a flat $20. The pumpkin patch serves as a fundraiser for the church, to help finance such projects as providing lunch to residents of Boston homeless shelters.

“We have regular pumpkins that you would carve,” said Hissong. “We have sugar pumpkins, little ones that kids like to paint. Little mini-pumpkins, whites ones, orange ones, striped ones — all different colors.”

And, of course, they’ve got plain old orange ones — and they’re selling fast.

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