Huge pumpkin crop at Buffalo Grove church patch

Seventy volunteers, young and old, unloaded about 1,475 pumpkins weighing more than 20,000 pounds on to the front lawn of Kingswood United Methodist Church at 401 W. Dundee Road, Buffalo Grove, on Oct. 8. The much-anticipated annual pumpkin patch is now open for business.

Despite the drought, farmers are reporting a bumper crop of pumpkins this year. At Kingswood, the pumpkins are noticeably bigger and brighter thanks to the dry weather. The patch is filled with pumpkins large and small including unusual shaped gourds with prices ranging from 50 cents to $25.

The annual church fundraiser helps provide support for Kingswood’s ongoing mission projects. The patch is a win-win for both Kingswood and the Navajo reservation in the four corners region. Kingswood receives the pumpkins from a nonprofit group, Pumpkin Patch Fundraisers, which leases 2,000 acres of farm operated by Navajo Agricultural Products Industries in Farmington, N.M. A thousand Native Americans are employed harvesting pumpkins in September and October. Pumpkin Patch fundraisers began more than 30 years ago and ship more than 5 million pumpkins across the country each fall.

The Kingswood UMC Pumpkin Patch is open up until Halloween. The hours are 10 a.m.-8 p.m. every day. Volunteers will be working the sales tent or purchases can be made inside the church office. Call (847) 398-0770.