PUMPKIN SEASON BEGINS AT TJ FARMS
CHICO » It is that time of year where families fill pumpkin patches in search of the perfect pumpkins for the porch or to decorate their homes with. At TJ Farms, Chico families began showing up this weekend to take part in the annual trek to the patch. However, this year has the specter of COVID-19 hanging over it.
However, it could turn out to be a positive thing for the farm.
Owner Tim Moss, said that they get about 25,000 people per year at their farm to search for pumpkins and how many will show up this year due to Covid is anybody’s guess, Moss said. Normally, during the year classrooms full children show up but this year the kids aren’t in school.
But Moss’ dad, Dave, said that because kids aren’t in school the farm might see a more steady stream of visitors during the week compared to its usual rush of visitors each weekend. Dave Moss said it was slow on opening weekend but expects it pick up as the season wears on.
“I’m sure that we’ll get a lot of parents during the week because the kids are not in school,” Dave Moss said. “Normally during the week, we get the field trips from9 a.m. to noon.”
One of the unique aspects of this patch is that the kids get to cut their pumpkin from the stem. Sometimes the guests forget the clippers.
“When they go out on the wagon, there is supposed to be a set of clippers in it,” Dave Moss said. “They cut the stem and then set clippers the down and find (the pumpkins). About two hours later someone else finds (the clippers) and brings themin. By the end of the year, we have them all back.”
One family got out to the farm to get their pumpkins and enjoyed the morning at the farm.
“We came to try to get outside a little bit and find some really cool pumpkins,” said Ann Maxwell, who was with her two children. “Wandered around the farm area and the barn.”
The family hadbeen there before, but Maxwell said that they go to the Sierra Oro Farm Trail this time of year, but this time they went to the farm.
Maxwell said that her biggest concern was the smoke not coronavirus, so she planned to limit the outside time.
“I think they all spread stuff out pretty wide open, they have hand sanitizer, we had masks on when we got here,” Maxwell said. “So we are safe as long aswe follow the rules.”
Maxwell said her kids found what they were looking in the patch.
But the farm isn’t just a pumpkin patch, as Tim Moss says. They’ve been hosting classrooms at the farmand soon will be showing visitors how farms used to be plowed by horse and not by machine. Tim Moss says they plan to grow their agriculture education program to a year- around one. They have partnered up with CARD to have the classes.