Pitch with the pros at Kemper Williams Park in Patterson
October 21, 201552nd State Representative District to choose between 2
October 21, 2015
A spike in pumpkin prices across the country has not been felt at pumpkin patches in Terrebonne Parish so far.
First United Methodist Church of Houma has hosted an annual pumpkin patch since 2011. While prices across the country have risen, the church has not experienced a spike.
Niki Barr, head of youth ministry at First United Methodist, said that her church gets their gourds delivered from New Mexico. She works with the non-profit Pumpkin Patch Fundraisers to supply the annual event.
Kevin Corrigan is a customer service supervisor with Pumpkin Patch, and he has worked directly with Barr on sales. Corrigan said that First United Methodist has shown constant improvement in its sales.
“I can tell you that every year they have gotten a little bit bigger, and a little bit better. Their sales have increased every year,” Corrigan said.
Pumpkin Patch works exclusively with nonprofits, according to Corrigan. He said that his company offers the chance to fundraise with no upfront cost. The organizations are not asked to pay Pumpkin Patch until after their total sales end in November. Each nonprofit gets to keep more in sales as it sells more, starting with those that sell less than $7,000 keeping 25 percent of the sales.
Corrigan said Pumpkin Patch’s prices have remained consistent.
“We lease the land from the Navajo reservation out in Farmington, New Mexico. Our prices have pretty much remained the same for the 40 years that we’ve been doing it. We might have bumped them up 50 cents here or a quarter here, but a basketball-sized pumpkin is always in the $8-10 range,” Corrigan said.
However, prices have reportedly risen for pumpkins across the country. Extreme weather has washed out a number of pumpkin crops, particularly pie pumpkin crops, across the Midwest, taking 30 percent of this year’s crop with it.
Dr. Allen Straw is an advisor to the Virginia Pumpkin Growers’ Association. Straw said that he has gotten word of the elements punishing even the most persistent pumpkin growers in the Midwest.
“For this year, there were a lot of acreages in Illinois and Indiana that got rained out. I’ve heard of growers that planted three times, maybe even four times, and just kept getting flooded out,” Straw said.
Straw said there is a difference between pie pumpkins and the ones often used for jack-o-oanters. The demand for ornamental pumpkins far outweighs those used for nutrition at this point.
“The nutritional one is very, very minor. The jack-o-lantern and the ornamental is by far the dominant market now,” Straw said. •
