Pumpkin Harvest Saves Season for Roca Berry Farm

By: Bill Steckis Email

Updated: Fri 5:45 PM, Sep 21, 2012

It is the last day of summer. that means tomorrow is the first day of fall. It's also opening day for the Roca Berry Farm.

As the winds of change for the seasons hit Roca, it was the winds of wisdom that saved a crop that could have been devastated.

"This is our livelihood," Said Bev Schaefer, Roca Berry Farm Owner.

That wisdom came in the form of planning and irrigating early on at the farm. The owners knew the crop could be in trouble, but what squashed other crops didn't "squash" this one.

"We moved pipe all summer long over 25-30 acres. Luckily we had a couple of college kids to hels so that helped to move it well," said Schaefer.

The 180 thousand acre fall festival has two new attractions this year.

"We have an apple house for the caramel apples and we added a dragon to the psycho path. Tomorrow will be our opening day. We will finally let the public in to see all of our hard work in the barns and they can take rides through our pumpkin field to see where they come from so it should be a good day," said Schaefer.

So a big day is planned on the first day of Fall. It's when the Fall Equinox appears in the Northern Hemisphere. It's the day the sun's illusionary path is directly over the equator. Only fitting that good planning not only gives us an illusion, but an illustration of thousands of bright orange pumpkins. In fact this year's harvest has grown over 100,000 pumpkins at the Roca Berry Farm.

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