As the nights start to draw in, many of us look forward to an annual visit to a farm to pick a pumpkin for Halloween.
This American-style pastime started in Scotland over 10 years ago, and has become a popular family outing.
While many fruit-picking farms have diversified into pick your own pumpkins, we’ve seen a few closures over the last 18 months with Kilduff Farm in East Lothian and Udny Pumpkins in Ellon both stopping the autumn offerings.
Now South Ardbennie Farm in Perthshire will also no longer offer pumpkin picking. The family-friendly farm, which has been described as ‘incredible’ has been sold and the new owners are keen to concentrate on native Aberdeen Angus cattle.
The former owners started pumpkin picking in 2018 and had roughly 1500 pumpkins available to pick. They also had food stands including pizza, marshmallow toasting, space hoppers and more.
In a post announcing the sale, the former owners called it the “end of a chapter” writing: “I wanted to take a moment to share a personal message for this final update.
“The farm, including the pumpkin patch and our ‘pigsty’-inspired cabin, will no longer be available for bookings.
“After 40 years (30 of my own) at South Ardbennie Farm, our family has decided to close this chapter. In more recent years, what started as a small patch of pumpkins soon grew into our first PYO pumpkin patch in 2018. Then in 2022, we opened our gorgeous cabin to welcome more of you to stay on our farm. Unfortunately, due to decisions made beyond my control, I’m no longer able to continue this journey on the farm.
“It has been an absolute joy to welcome so many of you over the past six years, seeing some of you return year after year to our little corner of Perthshire. Behind the scenes, it has been an emotional rollercoaster, the unpredictable weather, less sunshine for growing and back-to-back October storms during our PYO pumpkin season have not been on our side but we kept going!
“I know this might be disappointing news for many of you, we will miss you too - it has been fun! My family would like to express our thanks and appreciation to the many of you who have supported our journey to this point - we’re excited to see what the next chapter holds.”
Udny Pumpkins in Ellon closed in May this year with Jenny Fyall, owner of Udny Pumpkins making the announcement via the patch’s social media saying that "physically it has become too much for me.”
She wrote “To all my lovely followers...This is a post that I have been putting off writing, but the time has come to let you know that I have decided to close Udny Pumpkins, at least for this year but probably permanently. I cannot express strongly enough how grateful I am to you for your support over the past eight years.
“I am so sorry to those of you for whom visiting the pumpkin patch has become a beloved annual tradition. I know that some of you have visited every year and I am so grateful to you. I have come to think of you as friends, albeit friends I see only once a year! I will genuinely miss you, as well as the small business owners I have worked with and the teenagers who come in to help.
“If the pumpkin patch only involved the two weeks in October when we opened to the public, I would not even have considered taking this step. When the sun is (occasionally!) shining and children are leaping on hay bales and the pumpkin patch is full of visitors with their colourful wheelbarrows. It is the best sight and I am so grateful to you all for making it the thriving event it has become.
“However, the pumpkin patch involves far more than those two weeks and the truth is that physically it has become too much for me. As we are a very small farm we don't have the machinery of a bigger site and almost all the digging, laying of weed cover, planting, harvesting and other manual work is done by hand.
“Over the years this has taken its toll on my back and during 2024 this took a more serious turn. By the end of October I was struggling to walk due to a back injury from too much heavy lifting and I was in considerable pain for more than three months. It is only in the past few weeks that this has improved and I can now move around again pain free. It is an understatement to say I don't want to go through that again…”
Kilduff Farm stopped pumpkin picking in 2024, writing:“It’s not been an easy decision and certainly one that hasn’t been taken lightly. We have poured our hearts and souls into our pumpkin project over the last eight years and pumpkins have filled every part of our lives - often our dreams. There are a multitude of factors that have shaped our decision, but ultimately we know it’s the right time for our family.”
While the erratic nature of the weather isn’t ideal for pumpkin growing in Scotland, many are still open and getting ready for their busiest time next month. Rebecca McEwan from Scotland’s oldest pumpkin farm, Arnprior in Stirlingshire said: “We’ve been really fortunate with the recent weather. The prolonged dry spell has actually been a positive for us, and the rain arrived at just the right time to prepare our fields for planting pumpkins.
“That said, pumpkins are notoriously difficult to grow in Scotland. Every season presents its own unique challenges, whether it’s temperature, moisture, pests, or timing. No two years are ever the same.”
Alex Humphreys from Balgone in East Lothian - who reckon they have about 60,000 pumpkins this year - added: “It has been an interesting year; compared to last year, it has definitely been better. The pumpkins got going ok with the sunshine and water coming as they needed it.
"We have got a a good proportion starting to turn orange, so hopefully we are in a good position for October. Most of the varieties (they have 27 varieties) have had a good year, some of the later fruiting ones have struggled as Storm Floris damaged their leaves. The warm weather this year has overall led to the ripening sooner compared to last year (a very challenging year).”
