US (VA): Good conditions lead to lots of pumpkins for local growers
Proprietor Kristin Rider credits a moderately dry start to the pumpkin growing season and the attention and labour of her children — Ashby, Kendall and Annsley — with helping to produce the Madison County farm’s strongest pumpkin harvest so far.
“They are the worker bees,” Rider said. “They lost count at 1,000 pumpkins.” Other fall crops offered at the farm stand, which has operated for about five years, also are expected to do well, Rider said. The family has farmed the land for generations.
“We sell greens, potatoes, squash and sweet corn, and we’ve been open since April, and we’ll have turnips through the fall.” The farm also raises hogs and chickens. “We grow 90 percent of what we sell,” Rider said.
Apple growers, such as Cynthia Chiles, owner of Carter Mountain Orchard and Chiles Peach Orchard, both in Albemarle County, also say the fall agriculture season is off to a strong start.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Lidholm said, apples were Virginia’s 15th-largest agricultural commodity, with farm cash receipts totalling $54 million in 2012. This year, the USDA expects Virginia apple production to total 180 million pounds. The varieties of apples grown in Virginia include Ginger Gold, Gala, Fuji and the familiar Red Delicious.
Pumpkins, too, are grown statewide, said David Robishaw of the state agriculture department, although most commercial production is in Southwest Virginia.
“Consumers should find plenty of pie pumpkins, squash, gourds, mini pumpkins and other speciality varieties, as well as corn fodder and straw bales,” Robishaw said in an email. “We are heading into the peak pumpkin season, and there is every reason to believe this will be an excellent season and the consumer should be able to find everything they want to decorate their homes.”
Carter Mountain also grows pumpkins, which were planted in June, and “our pumpkin crop is probably the best it’s ever been,” Chiles said. “Because it was a good summer, the plants got off to a good start. Now we just count on mother nature,” Chiles said.
Source: dailyprogress.com