Local pumpkin patch welcomes visitors of all ages

For more than 20 years, Queen’s Pumpkin Patch on Saratoga Avenue has been supplying the community with pumpkins for the Halloween season. The patch opens every year on Oct. 1 and closes halfway through the day on Halloween.

In addition to selling pumpkins, the patch offers a variety of activities, such a hamster ball game, train rides, hayrides, mazes and a petting zoo.

According to manager Brenda May, all the pumpkins and straw are grown on a farm just 25 miles south of Saratoga and are shipped to the lot in two semi trucks. Each year, nearly all of the pumpkins are sold, but the few that are left over are either eaten or put to use in creative ways. May, for example, has learned how to make a snowman out of pumpkins.

The patch also offers tours for preschoolers, kindergarteners and first graders, where they can learn about the life cycle and different types of pumpkins, as well as recipes that make use of edible pumpkins.

“Everybody can look at the different types of pumpkins and what they were originally used for, and what people use them for now,” May said.

The patch sells 12 different varieties of pumpkins, from small, baseball sized ones to warty squashes, to the typically-sized round pumpkins used for jack-o-lanterns. According to May, these pumpkins have seemingly odd nicknames. The typical, smooth skinned orange pumpkin, for example, is known as a “Fat Jack,” and the round, flat, multicolored pumpkins are the “Cinderellas.”

Almost everything at the pumpkin patch, from the pumpkin carving kits to the bales of hay, is sold by the end of the season. Even some of the petting zoo animals, such as the rabbits, pigs and chickens, are put up for sale.

From the people who give the tours to the people who run the stands, May is pleased that the employees there are energetic and friendly, and says that she looks for people with good personalities to work at the patch.

“I just want someone that has their pants pulled up to their waist,” May said. “I don’t want anybody who has saggy drawers.”

Nelly Cabrera, who, like May, is also a manager, does “a little bit of everything.” She runs the petting zoo, trailer ride, tours, and works in the office. She is accustomed to her job, as she has worked within school systems, at the primary, middle, and high school stages, ever since she received her high school diploma.

Customer Janice Roberts and mother of two Saratoga High alumni comes to the patch every year to pick out pumpkins to decorate her house. The nice thing about Halloween, she said, is that all generations are able to enjoy the holiday.

“I think that Halloween is the best holiday,” Roberts said. “I think that autumn is the best time of year here, and it’s a nice time to celebrate and I just think all of these pumpkins are so interesting.”

One reason for the patch’s popularity is its positive atmosphere.

“You know people are really having a good time,” Roberts said.