Alberta pumpkin farmers impacted by drought, but patches prevail

After Alberta's hot, dry summer, droughts impacted all parts of the agricultural landscape, especially pumpkin farmers —yet even after the challenges, many growers are really proud of their pumpkins.

Mill Tower Ranch owner Mike Williams says there are challenges every year for Albertan pumpkin farmers — droughts, bacteria, frost — but 2023's growing season still stands out as especially difficult for many. 

Just east of Ponoka, Alta., is where you'll find Williams' ranch. As a farmer, he said his pumpkin patch business came to be after growing them yearly for neighbours.

"Then someone said, 'Well, you should just start growing more,' and last year we sold 3,000 pumpkins… So [this year] we had to make sure we were going to have a decent crop."

But he says the beginning of this year's growing season was a "very, very dry one," having to run his irrigation system — which puts out 12,000 litres of water per hour — for six hours every week during the first two months of the season to keep the pumpkins alive. 

And Williams' pumpkin patch is somewhat of a labour of love — he says the financial yield from this year's sales won't necessarily make up for the water bill needed to grow them.

"It's not something we make money with… We enjoy seeing all the people come out every year."

Williams' farm was able to produce a good harvest, with over 24 different varieties of pumpkin this year.

Droughts and doubts

Michelle Gietz is in charge of Brooks Corn Maze in southern Alberta, and she also says that summer heat waves meant her pumpkin patch needed more irrigation than usual.

Gietz has been farming pumpkins for the past 10 years, and she says Thanksgiving weekend is her busiest time of year.

"We needed a lot of water because we received very little rain this year. Irrigation was continual," said Gietz.

After planting her pumpkins later than usual, Gietz says some of her pumpkins didn't make it following the intensely dry heat in May.

"Initially, I thought they weren't going to amount to much," she said, but September's perfect growing weather helped her patch get to the fall harvest finish line.

October's pumpkin demand is high — Gietz says she sells out every single year — but even with the dry conditions through the growing season, she's ready for Thanksgiving weekend.

"I've got a bunch of beautiful, ripe and ready-to-go pumpkins."

Gietz says that if you're in the market for a big pumpkin, there's even a little train at Brooks Corn Maze to help people transport their giant gourds.

Tam Andersen runs Prairie Gardens, a 35-acre farm in Sturgeon County. She's been growing pumpkins for over 40 years, and she says 2023 was a "very tough" growing season.

"Our spring began in a full-on drought. We never had a drop of rain for the first 60 days," said Andersen.

"We planted little transplants of pumpkin seeds in ankle deep dust and a huge leap of faith… Some of them died from drought."

Pumpkin purgatory

When weather patterns "drastically changed" in July, Andersen's pumpkin patch got over 25 inches of rain in just one month — "a whole year's worth of moisture."

In higher ground areas, the pumpkins died of drought, and in lower areas, they drowned. After losing roughly 35 per cent of her pumpkin crop, Andersen says she felt like the situation was "looking dire," and feared a fall pumpkin shortage.

"But we are optimists as farmers, and we persevered."

The Albertan pumpkin grower says that any seed that was planted in the right area survived the unpredictable weather and grew "spectacularly."

"We have some of the biggest pumpkins we've ever seen in our lives," she said. 

"It's always a surprise. Life and farming are like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get for growing season."