The Pumpkin Patch is a hopping spot on September 18, Open Farm Day. The agri-tourism business has not been resting on its laurels, although they have been registering between 11,000 and 12,000 visitors in the 17-day season in recent years, with as many as 2,000 visitors one day last year.
The Podnobni Family farm, just a couple of miles off Number One Highway at Oak Lake is an ideal place for farm tourism.
Neighbour, Louise Stitt, Judy and Don Podobni, and Tanis and Travis Podobni are partners in the venture which now boasts a world class venue complete with thousands of pumpkins, hay rides and a learning centre.
Pumpkin Patch is 10 years into providing family fun in the fresh air and they have seen visitors from around the world and thousands from closer to home.
Stitt readily admits the Pumpkin Patch is profitable, but they have continued to plough profits back into expanding and improving the venue. There are five white trimmed, red buildings and activities too numerous to mention, several of them brand new this year including mini golf, and a corn box.
The pumpkin-themed venue was birthed 10 years ago when Louise and Don and Judy Podobni were musing about the state of their cow-calf operation.
Stitt tells, “In 2006, I was sitting having coffee at the house with Don and Judy and they were talking about doing something to enhance the farm.” At that time, Travis and Tanis were in Treherne and were interested in farming, but the Oak Lake farm needed something to keep a second family going.
They considered berries or Saskatoons.
Stitt’s response was, “‘Oh you guys, that’s nothing but work’. You’ve got grandkids. I’ll help you do something that’s a little more fun for the grandkids.’”
It was 2006 when Judy and Louise took a tour, visiting 23 pumpkin patches in the northern USA and southern Ontario. They returned thinking it looked like fun and wondering if they could convince Don to “let the public on his farm”.
“We looked back in 2007and wondered why would anyone bother coming back,” says Stitt.
It was just a barley field in 2006 and the spring of 2007.
“So we’ve added a little bit every year, and Don has become a definite agri-tourism ambassador. He used to put himself in the tractor for the hay ride.” They told Don that the public wants to meet the farmer. “Ever since,” Stitt nods, “he’s been in the yard, talking to anybody who wants to talk, about how things are going and how things are being done.”
Several years into the operation, after spending their summers helping on the farm, Tanis and Travis joined the partnership. “This is their thing!” Stitt notes.
They have five buildings on the immaculate grounds, including a produce barn where pumpkins and gourds can be purchased; food is available in the Farm Store which houses washrooms and a little store. Delicious pumpkin pie and other food items can be purchased and enjoyed at picnic tables in the country setting. There are animals to visit and Farmer Don's Famous Racing Pigs.
But the Pumpkin Patch isn’t just for kids. Adults clearly love it too. Sitting in the picnic barn, where the floor is recently cemented, Stitt explains the Pumpkin Patch has rented its facility for weddings and other family functions. The first wedding ever held there was an older couple with grandchildren. “They wanted something where the kids could have fun too, because they didn’t want to leave the kids out.”
Meandher Creek Pumpkin Patch opens the weekend following Labour Day, and goes until late in October.
On Thursdays and Fridays they are open to school tours, seeing an average of 1500 to 1800 students. Sometimes the schools use it as a mentoring opportunity, with older children matched up with younger students.
“We take them out on the hayride and talk about the farming processes.” In the produce barn Stitt usually talks to the students. “Generally, it’s an anti-bullying story and it has something to do with some produce in there. Then, we have a quick tour of the animals, a race with the ducks and then they have a station with the bales and they just have free play.”
Practical employment
Although there are probably thousands of pumpkins piled up on display, there’s still another row of pumpkins out in the field.
“We’re thinking this week we’ll get them all off.” They employ a staff of 34. She smiles, “It’s not bad when you live in the thriving community of Oak Lake....Many of them we’ve had since they were very young.”
Pumpkin picking is hard work and the owners are proud of their staff. “It’s not like we’re asking them to pick cherries,” she says. “We’ve given some really strong references for positions when they leave.”
As for the pumpkins themselves – many become delicious pies and other food products that Tanis Podobni creates to sell. Other pumpkins go to grocery stores.
“We donate some, some are used by others for fundraisers, some pumpkins become corporate gifts for clients.”
In her regular profession, Louise Stitt works for the local Prairie Mountain Health in the EMS office in Souris. She finds the Pumpkin Patch a great change - the smiles on children’s faces are what she treasures. “You see the kids in here...I love the intergenerational stuff...seeing a grandpa show a grandson how to milk the cow. We have a ‘little farmhands’ attraction,” she explains.
Stitt figures there have been 800 people to Open Farm Day. “I’m expecting next weekend to be busy - it’s all about the weather.”
