Going down to the Missouri River in the fall is always an incredible road trip. The county road was busy and dusty as we made our way to the entrance of the ranch. It was my first visit to the Pearson Pumpkin Patch. We went first to the pumpkin patch to pick up our pumpkins first, and even though it was Sunday, supposedly the last day, there were still many hundreds of orange pumpkins lying on the ground to be picked up.
I kept hearing as I was sitting on the picnic table eating my hamburger, "what a beautiful day. Isn't it beautiful down here!" The kids didn't seem to notice the beauty of the fall colors; they were having too much fun going through the straw maze. One kid said, "I almost died in there. I couldn't find my way out!" I almost laughed out loud!
There were about 300 people there that day. Children were touching and watching all the animals. Horses, lamas, goats, birds, and dogs.
I asked Gay Pearson how many years have they had the Pumpkin Patch. She said, "I have to think about that for a minute." They first opened it to Winifred school for two years; then, they opened it to Big Sandy Schools for a couple of years. Gay and Raynee were home alone a weekend, and they had so many pumpkins they decided to have the public come, and they put it on the Havre online yard sale for one day. They were blown away by how many people showed up, mostly since it was just the two of them. It has grown since then, "10 years ago, maybe."
This year there were around a thousand people who attended when you put all four days together. They come from long distances all around the state. This year there was even some out of state licenses park in their yard.
Last year the pumpkins were covered with snow, and they gave them away because they were afraid they wouldn't last.
Pearson's grow 12 rows of pumpkins six feet apart. They use plastic mulch. The words, plastic mulch, is a little misleading as it isn't cut up pieces of black plastic, but rather a role of plastic they put down between the pumpkins. Gay said, "The pumpkins grow better than the cantaloupes." The deer eat the pumpkins; they go out in the morning and remove all the pumpkins the deer have nibbled on before the people get there. The deer first start eating the cantaloupes, but then move on the pumpkins when they get ripe.
A nursing home from somewhere was coming to get 60 pumpkins for a project. Before it's done, all the pumpkins will be gone. But not the memories. Families return year after year, because all though it's a long way to the Pumpkin Patch, the beauty, the family fun, remembering years gone by when families gathered on a farm, will keep bringing them back.
