A plethora of pumpkins: 5 places to get the iconic fall fruit in the Mohawk Valley
It’s that time of year when the fields are bursting with pumpkins and gourds.
Glowing jack-o-lanterns perched on neighborhood porches illuminate the fall evenings, and it’s almost as if the scent of pumpkin pie hangs in the air.
Here are five places in the Mohawk Valley where you can pick your own pumpkins or purchase them from farm-fresh markets. So break out your carving tools or your best pie recipes – or perhaps both! – and don’t forget to save the seeds for toasting.
North Star Orchards
Bins inside and out at North Star’s farm market overflow with pumpkins in a rainbow of colors and a variety of sizes. Choose from decorative pumpkins and cooking pumpkins and gourds, including butternut squashes the size of your head. And of course, head to the greenhouse or ride the wagon out to the fields to survey the jack-o-lantern possibilities. The market stays open through Christmas with other seasonal offerings, but hurry in for pumpkins.
Location: 4741 NY-233, Westmoreland, NY 13490
Hours: Open daily 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Wagon rides available 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. on the weekends.
Savicki's Farm Market
This farm had a bumper crop of pumpkins this year. Owner Eric Savicki said that they grow 20 to 25 different varieties of pumpkins across 8 acres. Varieties include sugar pumpkins, or pie pumpkins, which Savicki said have a sweeter-tasting flesh that makes them ideal for baking.
The market is open seven days a week for fall fans to go out and pick pumpkins, and offers scenic hayrides out to the pumpkin patch on the weekends. For $9 per person, guests can enjoy the ride, pick out any pumpkin they want and grab two ears of Indian corn.
Want to know if a pumpkin is a good size for carving? Give it a hug.
“I would say you want to be able to get your arms around it,” Savicki said. “If it’s too big and you can barely get your arms around it, you can carve those, but for a regular, average person to carve them, they’re going to get really thick. You’re going to need a really big knife or other equipment to cut through those.”
Savicki has seen plenty of creative jack-o-lanterns over the years. He said that every year, you can usually find pumpkins shaped like human skulls or a greenish-gray variety that brings Frankenstein’s monster's head to mind.
“I've seen a lot of different ways to carve a pumpkin,” Savicki said.
Location: 3295 State Route 12, Clinton, NY 13323
Hours: Monday-Saturday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through October 31. Hayrides from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays
Wood Creek Hollow
While nights at Wood Creek Hollow Haunted Trail and Maze are full of adults-only scares, pumpkin lovers of all ages can visit their Pat’s Pumpkin Patch to pick a peck of pumpkins. This year, the business is offering two Rome locations in close proximity to one another for all your pumpkin needs.
All pumpkins are $10 and under, and visitors can find sweet pie pumpkins, adorable jack-be-littles that fit in the palm of your hand, and of course those iconic large orange pumpkins ripe for the carving.
Locations: 3851 Wood Creek Rd., Rome, NY 13440
Farm stand at 4648 Senn Rd., Rome, NY 13440
Hours: Open during daylight hours through the end of October
Pumpkin Junction
It’s all in the name. Pumpkin Junction is another local farm where you can find a wide array of pumpkins for all your decorating needs – jack-o-lanterns and beyond.
“We have a lot of colored pumpkins – white, greenish-blue, reddish-yellow ones – for people to make stacks,” said Scott Davies, who has owned and operated Pumpkin Junction with his wife Christine since 1989. “Pumpkin stacks are real popular. We have about 20 different varieties of pumpkins available.”
In addition to hundreds of harvested pumpkins available in the business's yard, customers can visit the fields to pluck their own. Davies said that pumpkins are priced based on size, but that guests who harvest their own from the patch get $2 off each pumpkin.
Location: 2188 Graffenburg Rd., Sauquoit, NY 13456
Hours: Open daily from 9 a.m.-8 p.m. through October 31
Will's Cackleberry Castle Pumpkin Farm
Owner Mindy Portner said that every week, she and her staff carve about 250 pumpkins into grinning jack-o-lanterns. They stack them on the farm’s trademark totem poles, and the lit lanterns emit a warm glow for nighttime visitors to enjoy.
Portner also has some advice for picking out a carving pumpkin versus a baking pumpkin.
“You want something medium to large [for carving], that will stand up on its own, and has a nice big hollow center,” Portner said. “Then there's pie pumpkins – and there’s lots of different varieties – and those are smaller and more dense, and much better tasting to eat.”
Portner grew up on this farm, which her grandparents Bob and Verda Will ran from 1955 to 1996. Portner and her husband reopened the farm in 2011 and have been bringing the Halloween spirit to Camden ever since.
“It’s extra special because I grew up here,” Portner said. “It’s like a tradition. There’s something about it – the sights, the sounds. And as an adult, I love that it brings people joy. It gets them outside. It gives them something to do. Everybody that comes to pumpkin farm is happy and they have a smile on their face, so that’s our goal, you know?”
Location: 1175 Hillsboro Rd., Camden, NY 13316
Hours: Thursdays 4 p.m.-8:30 p.m., Fridays 4 p.m.-9 p.m., Saturdays 10 a.m.-9 p.m. and Sundays 10 a.m.-8 p.m.
The farm is open through Thursday, Oct. 31
This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Great pumpkins: 5 places in the Mohawk Valley to pick your own pumpkin
