Gardening : Pumpkin Harvesting Begins Today

Giant pumpkins--nearly large enough to serve as Cinderella’s coach--dot the fields of the Ayers Pumpkin Patch on the Faulkner Farm in Santa Paula, where the Fall Harvest Festival begins today and continues through Oct. 30.

Ripening right on schedule are 150- to 300-pound Big Max, Atlantic Giant and Prizewinner pumpkins that look like massive tangerine boulders. Lin and Allan Ayers, owners and operators of Faulkner Farm, report that this year’s crop is the most beautiful in years.

Each year the Ayers family opens its farm and plans a harvest festival in October. At this time, the weather is always sunny, the fields are untrampled, and visiting families get first pick of the crop. Pumpkins picked now will easily last until Halloween--and longer.

In addition to pumpkin picking, today’s opening-day festivities include free hayrides, pumpkin painting, a blue-grass band and a $5 all-you-can-carry harvest of pumpkins and squash. Grown especially for fall farm guests are winter and decorative squash, colored gourds and three kinds of ornamental corn. Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., visitors can enjoy the Harvest Craft Fair, where one-of-a-kind country and farm crafts will be for sale.

For those who can’t make it to Santa Paula this weekend, the festival will continue every weekend this month. After opening day, hayrides featuring Clydesdale draft horses will cost $1 per person.

Next to the pumpkin fields is a well-preserved red barn, built in 1886, which is still a working barn. It is filled with horse stalls and serves as storage for harnesses, tractors and wagons. Near the large barn is a smaller one, which was built in 1981.

Three wagons, drawn by teams of Clydesdale horses that weigh up to one ton each, provide the hayrides. The Faulkner Farm uses modern equipment for its projects, but Allan Ayers works the teams occasionally to haul hay, cultivate and plant or to exhibit in parades and shows.

In addition to weekend hayrides, children can hitch a ride around the pumpkin patch in “Grandpa Ayers’ original Model T,” purchased in 1920.

Lin Ayers, a specialist in food preservation, will be on hand to answer questions about canning, drying, freezing, preparation, storage and safety of foods. She has prepared a book with 160 recipes using produce found at Faulkner Farm.

The Faulkner Farm and Ayers Pumpkin Patch is about 40 minutes from Thousand Oaks or 30 minutes from Magic Mountain. It’s at the corner of Briggs and Telegraph roads in Santa Paula. To get there from Highway 101 in Ventura, go east on Highway 126 (Santa Paula Freeway) and turn left on Briggs Road. Admission is free.