What P.E.I.’s wet fall means for the pumpkin crop

It's shaping up to be a solid season here at Cool Breeze Farms. But it didn't start that way. The rainy weather delayed the harvest here by more than a week. We were a little worried, like what are we going to do? We don't have everything picked. And ultimately, you know, you only have so many people and so many days a week that you can pick pumpkins for. So, but I think in the end, we fared out good. Simmons says pumpkins are a picky crop. They need enough sun to ripen, which is why too much rain can delay a harvest. But it isn't that cut and dry. Simmons has more pumpkins this year compared to last. And they're bigger. She says the rain helped with that. Depending on which variety, each pumpkin plant can give you anywhere from two to five pumpkins off of the vine. For us this year, compared to last year, last year we had a lot smaller ones and less on the vine. For us this year, we've had a really good crop, about five per vine. Just up the road, Compton's farm market is also feeling the effects of the rainy forecast. His staff can't pick pumpkins when it's too muddy. Well, right now the wind and rain has definitely affected our harvest. You know, trying to get into the field, these are all hand-harvested pumpkins. So, you know, every day it rains is a day that we can't get in to harvest. While it's been tricky getting them out of the field, once they're out, they move quickly. This year has been booming for sales off-island. Compton chose to grow about 15% more than last year, and it's paid off. His sales for export are up 30%. With the cost of freight this year, we kind of felt that, you know, pumpkins growing local closer to our major distributors that buy our pumpkins off-island, the closer that it is for them, obviously their freight rates are going to be cheaper to buy from us versus them ship them in from Ontario or Quebec. So we said, if we're going to take a gamble on a crop, we're going to take it on our pumpkins this year. Back at Cool Breeze, Simmons plans to make some changes to the varieties she plants next season and to plant in shorter rows to make picking easier. Cameron Farquharson, CBC News, Summerside.