Category Archives: Pumpkins

Meet Chris Drake at Sandy Point Farms.

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His operation, situated in Southampton County near the southeastern corner of Virginia, produces a number of integral crops for the region including cotton, peanuts, soybeans, and corn. In fact, according to the most recent census, Southampton County is ranked first in the state for cotton and peanut production, second for soybeans, and third for wheat.

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Peanut harvest at Sandy Point Farms

When it comes to produce, Sandy Point also excels. While Chris’ father and brother work primarily on the row crop side of the farm, Chris is responsible for managing production of sweet corn and watermelons, neither of which are uncommon on farms around this region. “A lot of people don’t realize that we have a large commercial watermelon production industry,” says Chris. “Ag in Southeast Virginia is extremely diversified.”

Less common, on the other hand, are commercial pumpkin operations in Southeastern Virginia. Sandy Point Farms, with an impressive seventeen acres of pumpkins, stands as an exception. Chris got started with his first acre fourteen years ago. Today, he grows so many pumpkins that he focuses nearly all of his attention on the wholesale market. “Most others are around two or three acres and are selling retail,” he says of other operations in the region.

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Though Chris has managed to build success with pumpkins, their relative rarity in large-scale production in Southampton County is not without reason. “One thing that’s helped Chris is developing a good market. Growing these crops can be a challenge, but you have to be able to sell and market the crop as well. That might be why most growers around here stick to traditional commodities,” says Austin Brown, the Virginia Cooperative Extension agent who serves Chris Drake and other farmers in the county. “I think Chris has been able to tap into the urban areas and capitalize on the demand from these large populations.”

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Austin Brown, Southampton County Agriculture and Natural Resources Extension Agent, visits with Chris Drake at Sandy Point Farms.

Austin, who earned an undergraduate degree at North Carolina State University and a master’s degree at Virginia Tech, worked alongside several crop researchers to gain experience in agronomy before he joined Extension. In his current role, he helps producers like the Drake family at Sandy Point who rely on dependable crop management information. When certain field problems arise, timely updates are critical so that growers can protect their crops. “That’s something I try to do to help Chris and all people growing watermelons and cucurbits,” says Austin. “We diagnosed downy mildew, and I called all the producers,” says Austin as he recalls wet, cloudy conditions favoring the development of this disease earlier this summer. “This year has been a mixed bag of weather. It was wet early and we saw some nutrient leaching, then it was like that spigot just turned off,” he says.

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Those early wet conditions created special concerns for Chris and his pumpkin crop, as plants on the ground are prone to a number of diseases that can make the fruit unmarketable. “The two biggest challenges are disease control and marketing, in my opinion,” Chris says. He protects his crop throughout the growing season each year, but the threat of rain in late summer can push him to adjust his harvest date expectations. “Weather determines most of that. If it’s wet, we get them off the ground ASAP,” he says. Harvest itself is generally more labor-intensive than other pumpkin chores, often requiring a twelve to fifteen hour work day. In between, there are plenty of tasks and decisions to keep Chris up late and awake early. “A lot of times I’m up at four or five in the morning looking at market reports, deciding what to do for the day,” he remarks.

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Prior to developing his current undertakings at Sandy Point Farm, Chris honed his agronomy background in school and at work. His undergraduate degree and master’s degree from Virginia Tech not only equipped him to be the most ardent Hokie fan for miles around, but also prepared him for his current career. When he is not taking care of his farm at home, he serves PhytoGen Cottonseed as a territory agronomist covering northeastern North Carolina and southeastern Virginia. He spends a considerable portion of his work running on-farm research plots and yield trials and presenting data at about fifty grower meetings each spring. In all, he is responsible for 250,000 acres of cotton through his job.

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Chris and his family grow cotton on their farm.

Though all of the crops at Sandy Point Farms provide a diversified income stream, the pumpkins are a point of pride for Chris because they attest to an uncommon accomplishment for his growing region. When asked what he considers his greatest achievement, he says, “I started out with a half-acre in 2001 and now I’m up to seventeen acres. The quality of the pumpkins I’m producing in this area is competitive with the other growers from Southwest Virginia.” He believes the key to his success lies with marketing a top-notch product. One look at his trailer loads of perfectly orange, evenly-sized pumpkins with textbook stems is proof that know-how, dedication, and an eye for new marketing opportunities can be worth the effort to grow something a little unconventional.

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Additional Resources for Readers:

Sandy Point Farms

Specialty Crop Profile: Pumpkins

 

 

Meet the Parrish Pumpkin Patch.

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Many agricultural operations in Virginia are run as family affairs, but for the Parrish family, farm chores ranging from building a corn maze together, helping small children catapult gourds into a pasture, and turning a silo into a theater stray from the conventional.

The Parrish Pumpkin Patch, located near Dundas in Lunenburg County, currently boasts hay rides, old-fashioned corn shelling, activities inside a themed corn maze, a corn pit, a slingshot, a wide array of pumpkins and gourds available for sale, and a collection of barnyard animals consisting of three goats, two pigs, plenty of chickens, and “one very spoiled Jersey cow,” according to Liz Parrish.

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Liz and her husband, Jeff, have changed and improved the patch every year with the help of their children Vayda, Eli, and Cary. “It’s our seventh year in the pumpkin patch business. We’ve really evolved over these years,” Liz says. Cary currently attends Central High School, Eli is studying agribusiness after participating in FFA throughout high school, and Vayda is studying at William and Mary, but they each helped with day-to-day operations as the farm developed and they still handle responsibility for a number of vital tasks alongside their parents.

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The idea to start a pumpkin patch was planted in Liz and Jeff’s minds years ago. “When the kids were little, we loved to travel around to fall activities in October,” Liz recalls. “We wanted to give back and enable other families to make memories like we did. We just decided that we wanted to give pumpkins a try,” she says. Jeff Parrish is a third generation farmer himself with experience growing soybeans, corn, and wheat, so the family had some knowledge and tools on their side as they got started.

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In its inaugural year, the Parrish Pumpkin Patch was less than half of its current size. Liz recalls, “We pitched a tent in the yard the first year. I was cranking out caramel apples and cookies and all kinds of confections.” When they started the patch, there were few other similar agritourism endeavors in the region, and the Parrish family found that they had grabbed ahold of a successful idea. “We could tell we had touched on a niche….we built it and people were coming,” Liz says.

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After their first season, the family removed an aged building in the middle of their property that housed dairy cows in past decades. They then moved a tobacco barn from a neighbor’s farm onto the old dairy barn foundation—no small feat—and the new structure became the central hub for daily farm operations, admittance, and sales. “We are really proud of the barn,” Jeff says.

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Lunenburg County agriculture agent Lindy Tucker talks with Jeff Parrish about the silo renovation project.

This year, the family officially unveiled “Dundas Imax,” a silo they refurbished with a front door, a seating area, a projector, and a screen for movies and presentations. Inside the silo, Liz teaches school group after school group about farm chores and the life cycle of a pumpkin plant. In fact, although the farm is open to the public with regular hours throughout the month of October, field trips have become the bread-and-butter of the operation.

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View of silo from the floor. Visitors can sit inside to watch movies and presentations.

The first group that visited years ago was a photography class from Central High School. This year, the farm has hosted groups from Richmond, churches, public schools, homeschool classes, and more. “Every day Monday through Friday, we are double or triple booked. We’ve had public schools visit from as far away as Sutherland,” she says.

This year also brought one particular tour group of one hundred and fifty people to the farm, the largest the Parrish Pumpkin Patch has accommodated to date. Says Liz, “I’m proud of the field trip business. It’s very rewarding, goes really well, and we can handle bigger numbers now.”

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Top: Liz Parrish directs visitors through the farm’s activities. Bottom: The farm’s corn maze is themed and has activities for children to complete as they go through it. Visitors can also take a stroll on a clear path that goes through the maze.

The Parrish family teaches structured activity stations for each field trip. “We all play vital roles in it all,” Liz says, crediting the whole family including her mother Carol Watson and Jeff’s mother Joan for assisting with tour groups this season. “None of this would be possible without the help of Jeff’s dad, Wayne, who grew up on this farm when it was a dairy. He helps with every field trip,” she adds.

The farm has additional support this season from farm intern Taylour Edmonds, a student in Southside Virginia Community College’s agribusiness program. Liz and Jeff recently secured Taylour’s position with the assistance of a Southside Electric Cooperative donation which enables the college to develop internship opportunities for students in partnership with local agribusinesses like the Parrish Pumpkin Patch.

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It takes the family about an hour each morning to prepare for the daytime field trips, and then they staff the farm for the evening when more customers come to visit. “It’s a marathon,” Jeff says of the month of October. “We finish around nine o’clock on most nights,” he adds.

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While the operation’s farm activities are always a draw, the pumpkins themselves are still the stars. The Parrish family grows all of their pumpkins at their own farm. Around June, shortly after Jeff has begun work on the corn maze, the family starts their pumpkin seeds and then transplants the slips into the field. “We have fifteen pumpkin varieties, about twenty if you count the gourds,” Liz says. Her favorite is a variety she calls, “Fairytale.” She recounts seeing them advertised as “Martha Stewart’s favorite pumpkin for cooking” during a trip to Amish country in Pennsylvania but jokes that she has always liked them with or without Martha’s stamp of approval. She notes that the dense, green-gray Jardales are also a favorite for cooking. For visitors on a mission to pick up decorative gourds or carving pumpkins, trailer loads of all shapes, colors, and sizes greet visitors around the farm entrance.

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Virginia Cooperative Extension agent Lindy Tucker believes that the family’s success is due, in part, to their willingness to commit themselves to their vision. As with any agritourism endeavor, the Parrish family was unsure of what to expect from the community in their early years, but they took cues from their customers to shape their success. “Because they are a family themselves, they know which ideas will be well-received and how to make it great. They keep adding things,” Lindy says during a recent visit to the operation. Lindy, who works with farmers of all kinds throughout Lunenburg County in her service as an agent, believes that starting a pumpkin patch from scratch and extending invitations to the general public is a plunge that many landowners would be hesitant to take. “They filled a niche. They tried something that nobody else had decided to tackle,” she says. Lindy also says that the patch is an educational asset to the community because it affords children the rare opportunity to step into agriculture in a structured setting. “There are not as many farm field trip opportunities these days. This is the only thing of its kind within this community,” she says.

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Running a farm that has seen two thousand visitors thus far requires sacrifices and lifestyle adjustments, but Jeff is pleased to see families coming to the farm to make fall memories, just as he envisioned. “We enjoy meeting people and hearing them talk about the tradition. Some have been coming here for years,” he says. “We are able to do it as a family and it’s in our own backyard. At the end of the day, we can close up and walk into the house.”

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Jeff and Liz enjoy seeing all the ways that creating the Parrish Pumpkin Patch has helped her family form their own new memories, even as her children have grown into young adults. “I’m the most proud of it being a family affair and how hard we all worked together to make it happen,” she says.

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Additional Resources for Readers:

Parrish Pumpkin Patch

Parrish Pumpkin Patch on Virginia.org

Specialty Crop Profile: Pumpkins

Meet the Pumpkin Patch at Richlands Dairy Farm.

 

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We previously featured the Richlands Farm with a focus on the dairy operation. Click here to read the story. 

The pumpkin patch is a new addition to the farm this year, along with the two-acre corn maze. Both will be used in the farm’s lineup of weekend fall events, starting with the Family Farm Day kickoff tour on October 4th and ending with a Zombie Maze Run and Haunted Maze.

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Photo courtesy of Richlands Dairy Farm

Like many farms in the area, Richlands Dairy Farm has been a family-run, conventional dairy operation for years. However, the family has taken a leap into the growing world of agritourism. The fall festivities, most notably the Family Farm Day tour, bring consumers onto the farm to learn about agriculture directly from the people who produce food. In a world where most people learn about farming from television or the internet, the Jones family finds this venue for real-world education invaluable.

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The Family Farm Day on October 4th will be a prime opportunity for visitors to see the milking parlor, learn how dairy cows live on a day-to-day basis, and help the dairy feed their baby calves. Throughout the rest of October when the pumpkin patch, petting zoo, hay rides, and corn maze are open, visitors will get a view of the crops, cows, and pastures that sustain the family operation.

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“Agritourism,” the formal name coined for this type of endeavor, helps operations like the Jones’ dairy to diversify their farm income stream. An estimated 500 farms in Virginia engage in agritourism, and although many rely on traditional methods—pumpkin patches, corn mazes, you-pick, wagon rides, and petting zoos—many new agritourism efforts utilize out-of-the box options like wine tastings, movie screenings, farm chore experiences, and crop harvesting parties.

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A recent state-wide study of agritourism across the state found that most operations are concentrated along route 81, and that proximity to consumers plays an important role in the viability of these operations. Although there are relatively few agritourism opportunities in Southside Virginia, Richlands Dairy is well-situated for the new fall endeavor because it is located near a major metropolitan area and is a highly-visible fixture along route 460, thanks to the recognizable cow-shaped farm sign next to the road.

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The Richlands Dairy Farm corn maze

Like other brand-new agritourism ventures, the fall functions at the Jones’ farm have required extra planning, time, and resources. The corn maze was challenging to design from the ground and the pumpkins required special management for pests and diseases. The family is still working to set up their corn pit and petting zoo for visiting children and finalizing plans for a concession stand. All in all, the Jones family is not sure exactly what to expect on opening day. Nonetheless, they are excited about the way things are coming along, and according to Brittany Jones, a love of all things fall-related helped inspire the pumpkin patch idea in the first place. With a little luck, lots of planning, and some beautiful fall weather on the way, the hard work spent creating something brand-new at Richlands Dairy Farm will pay off when visitors step foot on the farm and join the family for some fun this October.

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Additional Resources for Readers

Richlands Farm Website and details on their Fall Farm Festival and Richlands Dairy Farm Facebook Page

Richlands Dairy Farm Twitter

Overview of Agritourism in Virginia

Specialty Crop Profile: Pumpkins