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Photo: David Blanchette | For The Telegraph
GODFREY — Heritage Farm and Fruit Trees delighted visitors with its inaugural Pick-Your-Own Pumpkin Patch this weekend.
“We have over forty varieties of apples available for picking,” said Heritage Farms co-owner Patrick Gibson. “We wanted people to see the orchard, as well, for the ‘you-pick’ next year.”
Co-owner Lindsey Gibson said they considered putting masks on the pumpkins, but eventually decided people might have had enough of masks.
“We worked diligently to stay COVID-safe,” she said. “We have hand sanitizer stations, we spread everything out, we added extra checkouts, we’ve done everything and worked with every department to make sure we were as safe as we could be. It looks like the kids are having a great time and running around, it’s exactly what we wanted.”
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Illinois harvests the largest share of pumpkin acreage of any state and an even larger share of processing acres. Almost 80% of pumpkin acres in Illinois are devoted to pie filling or other processing uses. After Illinois, the other top pumpkin producing states are Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and California. But Illinois produces more than the other five leading states combined, and about one-half of the national total.
Because of this, pumpkins are grown in mainly northern states.
According to the University of Illinois Cooperative Extension Service, the top 10 pumpkin producing counties in Illinois are Tazewell, Kankakee, Mason, Logan, Will, Marshall, Kane, Pike, Carroll and Woodford. A small percentage of pumpkins are grown for ornamental sales through “you-pick” farms, farmers’ market and retail sales, like, Heritage Farm and Fruit Trees.
“We’re glad there is a place like this, because, with the pandemic, it’s outside, so you can distance yourself without mask wearing,” said Amanda Beiser, of Godfrey, who brought four youngsters with her Saturday to the Godfrey farm. “It’s really cute. The kids are having a lot of fun and there are lots of pumpkins.”
Beiser planned to purchase some pumpkins and mums, and she appreciated the lengths the Heritage Farm owners went to in order to be COVID-safe.
“Everything is a little different because of the pandemic,” she said. “Maybe we’ll put some masks on the pumpkins.”
Nikki Hanner brought three children to the pumpkin patch.
“I hope the pumpkins won’t need to wear masks this year,” Hanner said. “We are so over the mask wearing and COVID stuff.
“They are having a lot of fun,” she said. “We got here first thing this morning so we got to be by ourselves for a while. I think it’s great for the kids to get out. We are going pumpkin picking after this. The oldest one will probably decorate his in a Transformers theme because it’s Transformer everything for him.”
Godfrey resident Jessica Winn said her son will undoubtedly decorate his pumpkin with a dinosaur theme.
“He wants to find the biggest pumpkin,” Winn said. “He’ll want to carve it and get another one every weekend.”
Deidra Hillis’ 2-year-old daughter had a blast playing with the bouncy balls and pumpkin bowling. The Granite City mom brought both of her children to Heritage Farm Saturday.
“It’s cute and creative,” Hillis said. “They did a really good job of setting it up for different ages, and it’s safe here for the younger ones especially. It’s nice to be able to be out here and enjoy it with my kids. It’s a little bit more free and, kind of normal.”
Hillis planned to bake the seeds they remove from the pumpkins they purchased on Saturday.
“The design will probably be something pink for my daughter, probably with sparkles, maybe some sort of princess or something,” Hillis said.
The Pick-Your-Own Pumpkin Patch also featured warm apple cider and apple cider donuts, numerous activities in the Kids’ Fun Zone, and the opportunity to browse the other produce offerings at Heritage Farm and Fruit Trees.
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September 20, 2020 at 03:13AM
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Pumpkins please: Heritage Farms and Fruit Trees holds first ‘you-pick’ event - Alton Telegraph
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