Pumpkin farmers' nightmare before Halloween
Pumpkin-picking farms across the region are hoping to battle back business on Halloween after Storm Boelo forced them to close over one of their busiest weekends.
Farmers across the region said they had put safety before their enterprises as gusts in parts of Yorkshire exceeded 50mph. Fallen trees and 60mph gusts blocked rural roads and cut power to thousands of properties across North and East Yorkshire, impacting farm operations.
North Yorkshire Council said the farming community had stepped in to help with the clear-up after the authority’s highways teams dealt with almost 200 calls for help between Friday and Monday.
Chief resilience officer for the North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum, Matt Robinson, thanked farmers who helped clear roads of debris. Mr Robinson said: “On a very practical level having key partners working closely like this allows the best possible use of intelligence and information sharing so that we can keep people safe.”
The UK's Largest Pumpkin Festival - Farmer Copleys, at Ravensknowle Farm, Pontefract – featuring 300,000 home-grown pumpkins in more than 40 unique varieties closed early on Saturday and all day on Sunday.
While a Farmer Copleys spokesman said its team were out on Monday “at the crack of dawn getting the field straight”, Sarah Foster who runs Brookleigh Pumpkins in Menston, said her small team had worked hard “to put everything back together” following the storm hitting the business which only opens for the last two weeks in October.
Mrs Foster said although her cafe’s benches had been blown down a hill on the farm, she had managed to limit the physical damage, but the financial impact had been huge.
She said: “It was an absolute disaster for a small business. It’s been so heartbreaking for me, all you can do it keep your chin up. I’ve had about third of people asking for refunds, but others have reorganised for later and people can check for last minute tickets on Eventbrite. It’s been really nice that people are understanding I’m just a small farm business open for two weeks a year and the majority will come and support me.
"I’m on my third Grim Reaper in three years. He’s very susceptible to the wind. I really didn’t want anyone to be taken out by the Grim Reaper! I’ve also got an 11ft Pumpkin Queen and they’re quite expensive assets so a friend, my husband, Tom, and me took them down on Saturday night with the circus tent so there wasn’t too much damage. I’d rather there be a lot of work than a lot of breakages.”
Jason Thompson, who runs Bert’s Barrow near Monk Fryston with his wife Charlotte, said he had also had made the decision to close his pumpkin picking experience on Sunday on safety grounds and if he had not strapped one of his buildings to a tractor it would have blown away. He said: “It wasn’t just the patch, you don’t want people travelling here if it’s not safe on the roads. We’re down hell of a lot after Saturday and Sunday, but at the end of the day it’s all about safety. We’ve got our c arving barn open now, s o hopefully people will come this weekend.”