Farmer Doug to host last pumpkin pick of season

PROCTOR, MN. (Northern News Now) - A Northland farmer still has hundreds of pumpkins to choose from in the last weekend the patch will be open.

Farmer Doug Hoffbauer and his wife Lois Hoffbauer, are in their fifth year of running the annual pumpkin patch, where families can pick their favorite pumpkins to take home.

This year, the crop was alright, despite the ongoing drought.

“Better than I would have expected as dry and hot as it was the summer but we got the rains when we needed them,” Hoffbauer said. “All in all, it’s a good crop that the size is good, the numbers are good, the quality is good.”

He said that with frost hitting the Northland within the month, he hopes to sell all of the pumpkins currently in the patch.

“We’d like to have them off because once there’s been a hard frost pumpkins don’t keep well,” he said.

Not only does the patch have pumpkins, but they have flowers for sale and fresh maple syrup.

“We try to make it a kid-friendly experience, so we have toys for the kids to ride on, we have mums and we do pressing of apple cider,” Hoffbauer continued.

Not only do Hoffbauer and his wife grow pumpkins, but they also grow apples, Christmas trees, and flowers every year.

While it’s a lot of fun for them, he hopes that his work inspires the next generation of farmers.

“When I was a kid, everybody had a grandpa on the farm and now the kids had have a connection to the farm is almost non-existent,” Hoffbauer said. “They come out and they pick out three or four pumpkins and it’s it’s not always the biggest or the best pumpkin that the kids pick, but it’s the one they want.”

The pumpkin patch will be open from 10 a.m. to sundown from September 29 to October 1.

For more information about Farmer Doug, you can visit their website here.

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