The season of orange brings pumpkins aplenty

Edgardo Bello, left, and Johnathan Ruiz harvest pumpkins at Galey Farms in Saanich. A wet spring and a hot, dry summer damaged some crops. But the farm planted extra pumpkins so the crop size is about the same as last year’s. The farm is open for picking pumpkins, exploring a corn maze and taking hayrides.

Galey Farms has opened for pumpkin-picking, corn-mazing and hay-riding, but it’s doing so with far fewer pumpkins than hoped for after a hot, dry summer choked some crops.

Spring rains and summer heat wiped out about a quarter of Galey Farms’ pumpkin crops, said Rob Galey of Galey Farms, at 4150 Blenkinsop Rd.

“I’m down 20 to 25 per cent,” said Galey, whose five farms produce 20 varieties of pumpkins — including some that are pink, blue, warty, white or miniature.

“The seasonal conditions were pretty unprecedented this year,” he said. “The rain wouldn’t stop in the spring, making it hard to get anything in the ground, and it went from that to non-stop rain to drought.”

A saving grace was that Galey Farms expanded its operation this year as it anticipated being a wholesaler. “So at the end of the day, we’ll probably have the same as last year because we planted an extra 30 per cent.”

That’s good news for thousands of schoolchildren who will tour the farms this month: “Everyone gets a pumpkin,” Galey said.

Pumpkin-picking at Galey Farms began Monday. The squash are loaded into a greenhouse to protect them from inevitable frost.

The farm hopes to sell tens of thousands of pumpkins, said Galey. Despite increased expenses, he expects the farm to try to hold the price constant — the pumpkins are priced by size, ranging from about $3 to $12.

Galey’s five farms have peat soils. Other farms with heavier clay soil that holds more moisture fared better.

That was the case for Vern Michell, of Michell Bros. Farms, 2451 Island View Rd. in Saanichton, who said they irrigated their crops well and the soil retained much of that moisture.

“We are fine and the pumpkins are great,” he said. “If we didn’t have ample water, some of the plants would have just died off.”

Michell said it’s a reasonably good guess the farm will sell about 240,000 pumpkins.

Another 30,000 will be picked in fields, mostly by children and their parents, he said. The pumpkin patch is open for picking until 5 p.m. each day. They sell for 50 cents a pound.

Jack Mar of Mar Farms, 7120 Veyaness Rd., said he has more pumpkins than anticipated — including big 20- and 30-pounders.

“We have a couple of extra bins,” said Mar, a former Central Saanich mayor. His farm supplies about 50 per cent of the pumpkins for Thrifty Foods on the Island.

The rest of his pumpkins will be picked in the next few weeks for sale at the farm, as well as for customers to choose for themselves in the fields.