Papa Spies with His Little Eyes…Pumpkins!

It’s late July and the pumpkins at Papa’s Pumpkin Patch are coming on strong. Papa grows many of the smaller varieties like Baby Bears right on the grounds at 5001 Fernwood Drive north of Bismarck. Like most farmers in the area, a little rain would be a good thing; still Papa is confident he’ll have all the pumpkins he needs for visitors when the pumpkin patch opens for the 2012 season on Sept. 10.

He also visited the fields that grow the larger varieties like Howdens and New Moons. Guess what? Some of them are already the size of basketballs! These pumpkins are under irrigation and they are doing very well.

(Want to know a secret? Papa expects the large straw bales for the infamous bale mazes to start coming in this week. Stay tuned for photos and updates on Papa’s plans for the mazes this season!)

Papa’s Playing ‘I Spy’

It’s the middle of July, and the dog days of summer are here. Papa says you can almost here the corn growing…corn in the corn maze, that is.

Yes, it looks like Papa’s Pumpkin Patch will have a full-out corn maze beginning Sept. 10. This picture was taken barely a week after the Fourth of July when everyone knows all corn is supposed to be knee high. Papa was out checking on things (pumpkins, gourds, corn) and he spied someone in the corn maze. Well, better said, he just barely spied someone in the corn! It’s nearly 6′ tall!!

That’s the makings of a fine corn maze, and Papa’s excited for you to see it this fall.

Does Anybody Live at Papa’s?

Great Question! Papa gets asked a lot of questions throughout the year, and one of the most common is this: Does anybody live here?

There’s six people that cross three generations who have the privilege of calling Papa’s Pumpkin Patch home. The log building at the heart of Papa’s was built by Tom (the original Papa) and Suzie Pearce. They were from the East Coast and they always had a dream to move “out west” and to build a log home. Bismarck, ND, was as west as they got, and their log home still stands at the center of Papa’s Pumpkin Patch.

The family shares meals in the gazebo each evening after the patch closes, and they do some of their best creative thinking about Papa’s in the home’s great room.