SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — The Pumpkin Hollow is having a shortage of volunteers, and even then, their business is still booming. Last year there were 26 volunteers at the Pumpkin Hollow and today, it is half of that. The family-owned patch has already had the challenge of dealing with a wet September crop that didn’t harvest well, but luck came in for the October crop that did. None of this slowed down the popular demand for pumpkins.
Volunteers range from students to adults. The co-owner, Louise Cox, pays them for their services based on experience and age. Cox said they’re trying to pick as fast as they can from Monday through Friday to have enough for the Halloween weekend, a fairly busy one.
Besides picking the pumpkins, the volunteers do so much more.
“They are a huge help,” Cox said. “Sometimes when I have too many volunteers on a particular day, I will tell them to stand on the sidewalk here and to see a senior trying to pull a wagon full of pumpkins and say may I help you get these in the car. Just simple customer service things.”
The customer service transpires well as many people, like Shaheemah Ashkar, love coming to this specific patch.
“I’ve been going here, every year, for as long as I can remember… it’s just very lively… it’s really easy to pick pumpkins out, they have pumpkins picked out for you, but you can pick pumpkins out for yourselves,” said Ashkar.
Pumpkin sales at the Pumpkin Hollow will end on Nov. 1 and close out the pumpkin season. Any leftover pumpkins will be donated. To follow up, the farm will open with Christmas tree sales on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
