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Pumpkin Hollow Reflects on Challenging Harvest Season Pumpkin Hollow Reflects on 2021's Summer of Rain

By Louise Rath

LOUISE RATH: Good times. It’s what motivates families to bring their kids to a pumpkin patch. And what motivates family farm owners—to do what they do.

LOUISE COX: My husband and I had five sons, and five daughter in-laws, and 22 grandchildren.

RATH: Louise Cox is the co-owner of Pumpkin Hollow Farm in Syracuse. Each year they open their doors to families, offering fall activities such as hayrides, pumpkin picking, and corn mazes.

COX: Grandmas and grandpa’s come, moms and dads working from home… bring the children

RATH: The farm has a history of producing soybeans, hay, and dairy products—but one year they tried pumpkins.

COX: One year we had so many pumpkins we decided to sell them to the public.

RATH: The Pumpkin Hollow farm has been in the Cox family since 1998. But this year’s harvest season has proven to be unlike any they have faced before. Panic—is the only word Louise Cox could muster to describe what the family has been through this year.

COX: It was a struggle. So…

RATH: This past summer was one of the wettest on record—and now it’s impacting the fall harvest season.

COX: We… flooded. And did not produce any pumpkins.

RATH: In any other year, the family would harvest their pumpkins in early September. Heading into October, they’re just beginning to harvest their own crops.

COX: We had to buy them from elsewhere where their weather was better than ours.

RATH: If the cox family learned anything from this summer’s growing season, it’s to never take things for granted.

COX: So we’re excited that, and grateful for, um, for what we have.

RATH: The family is excited to put their own pumpkins on the shelves, and welcome more kids like Adelyn, to share in their love of fall. Louise Rath, NCC News.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — The summer of 2021 was one of the wettest summers on record, and it’s causing a delay in the fall pumpkin harvest.

Louise Cox is a co-owner of The Pumpkin Hollow farm in Syracuse, and she said their crops were completely flooded.

“We flooded, and did not produce any pumpkins,” she said.

The Pumpkin Hollow Farm couldn’t start harvesting their own pumpkins until recently. At the beginning of October, all of their pumpkins were imported.

“We had to buy them from elsewhere where their weather was better than ours,” Cox said.

The Cox family has been farming in central New York for generations, and won’t let this year’s growing season get them down.

“We’re excited, and grateful, for what we have,” Cox said.

The Cox family had a history of producing corn, soybeans, and dairy products, until one year they tried pumpkins.

“One year we had so many pumpkins we decided to sell them to the public,” said Cox.

Ever since, the family has opened their doors to central New Yorkers, offering fall activities such as pumpkin picking, corn mazes, and hayrides.They welcome families, just like theirs, to share in their love of the fall season.

“Grandmas and grandpas come, moms and dads working from home,” said Cox.  “They bring their children.”

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