Farm comes up with unique pumpkin picking alternative after crop fails

A Manchester farm has had to revamp their Autumn plans after their pumpkin crop failed – for the first time in 30 years.

Boundary Farm in Dunham Massey has been supplying pumpkins to businesses for decades, but this year the fields looked much different to their normal hue of orange.

‘The cold, wet spring we had this year wasn’t conducive to the germination of the crop,’ Chris Hewitt, owner of the Boundary Farm, told Metro.

‘When you’re sowing 40,000 to 45,000 seeds, you’re expecting around 120,000 pumpkins. This year, we just didn’t get that. It was a bit of a shock.’

The 600 pumpkins this year – compared to their normal 120,000 – was an ‘eye-opener’, Chris said, as the farm relies on pumpkin sales to pay rent for the winter, which prompted him to search for other options to help.

‘It’s been an issue across the country. This is due to the wet weather that we had in the spring. You rely on warmer weather for a decent germination on the crop for a good start. That just had a knock on effect here through the year,’ he said. 

Wet crops present more issues than just a low crop yield – they also bring up the chances of potential diseases in the harvest.

Chris added: ‘Then, you look at the financial aspects of applying more chemicals to control those diseases. It’s a huge investment.’

Boundary Farm looked to their 30 acres of apple orchards to help alleviate the burden, resulting in this year’s new Apple Festival. 

Using their 6,500 apple trees at the farm – something they aren’t short of this year, Chris says – the farm decided to allow visitors to pick the fruit and even taste the fresh apple juice and cider.

The response from the public has been ‘fantastic’, he said. 

‘We’ve been booked out every day that we’ve run, and the feedback that we’ve been getting is that people are enjoying it because it’s something a bit different to pumpkin picking.’

Though the pumpkin crop failed, their apple juice sales have benefitted from the extra footfall through the Apple Festival.

Across the UK today, many are picking up last minute Halloween costumes, décor and pumpkins.

Looking for some inspiring spooky designs to try out on pumpkins this Halloween? We have you covered.

Carving pumpkins, trick or treating and dressing up as ghosts or demons are popular ways to celebrate Halloween in the UK.

We’ve found some of the weirdest and most wonderful Halloween traditions across the world.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].

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