SLIGO, Pa. (EYT) — As a fun, family-friendly pastime, picking pumpkins at local farms has always been a traditional activity duing the Halloween season.
(Pictured above, from left: Rita Anderson, John Saylor, Bryan Smith, Teresa Smith, and Mark Saylor, the core of Saylor’s Farm.)
Saylor’s Farm, well-known for its strawberries, decided to get into the pumpkin-picking game; families are invited to come and enjoy a tractor ride to one of the farm’s four pumpkin patches to pick out their Jack-O-Lanterns.
“We wanted to try to get people down to the farm,” Mark Saylor, the current owner of Saylor’s Farm, told exploreClarion.com. “We thought this would be a way for people to come out and see what we have down here.”
Saylor said the farm has declined in output mostly due to manpower, and he hopes the pumpkin patch can bring much-needed revitalization to the farm.
“We’re just doing a little bit at a time to see how well the community can support the farm,” he said.
Open from 3:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. daily, pumpkin pickers get to enjoy a tractor-pulled ride through the scenic farm to the patch. Once there, the search for the perfect pumpkin begins.
And — Saylor’s Farm has plenty of pumpkins to go around.
Out of around 100 acres of land, four to five acres are dedicated to pumpkin farming, which is a dedicated process.
“Especially the bigger pumpkins — (they) take 100 days or longer (to grow),” explained Saylor. “You have to get them planted fairly soon in the spring. You can’t wait too long.”
This year, Saylor’s Farm planted more pumpkins than ever before.
“This is the first year we grew this many. I was planning on taking a lot of them to the auction or wholesaling them, but there’s a lot of pumpkins on the market, and the price hasn’t been that good,” said Saylor.
The best pumpkins, he said, usually have green stems as opposed to brown ones.
Not only does Saylor’s Farm grow the familiar orange pumpkin, but it also produces several different varieties, including gourds and smaller, white decoration pumpkins.
“There’s about four different kinds of pumpkins I grew this year,” said Saylor. “Some are a little different shaped. Some are more squatty, and some are more round. Some have a thicker stem on them. We also grow pie pumpkins.”
Saylor said he is prideful of the farm.
It was started by his father, John Saylor, in 1959 as an exclusively strawberry farm. Later on, during the 80’s, Saylor’s Farm expanded to grow other crops. Now, Mark Saylor is doing everything he can to keep the farm afloat.
Saylor listed lower prices, manpower shortages, and high taxes as the main issues facing the farm.
“I’m proud of my father that started it, and I’m trying to keep things going,” he said. “I’ve been here all my life. I’m 55 now, and this is pretty much all I’ve done my whole life. So, trying to hold on to it as long as I can. Hopefully, I can keep it for a while.”
