Beating the odds: Irrigation saves Cape Breton pumpkin patch from summer drought

One farm in Cape Breton is seeing a decent pumpkin crop this season.

Edward Rendell of Point Aconi, N.S., is 79 years old and has been farming most of his life.

He said this summer was the dryest he has ever experienced.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said during an interview at his business, Rendell’s Farm in Cape Breton.

While many other pumpkin patches in the Maritimes have suffered from the drought, Rendell has managed a pretty good harvest.

He said it’s because he was able to get his gourds the water they needed through irrigation, to make up for the lack of rain.

“I have three ponds on this farm, and I was fortunate enough that this field here where I was growing the pumpkins was close enough to one of the ponds so I could irrigate them,” Rendell said. “My strawberry crop though, I’ve been down at least 40 per cent.”

Down the highway in Coxheath, N.S., a farmers co-op store, which gets its pumpkins from Rendell’s farm currently, has a good supply of them as a result.

“It definitely makes my life easier not having to try to source pumpkins from outside the area,” said Andrew Lewis, manager at United Farmers Co-op Country Store.

However, Lewis said they have seen the effects of the summer drought on some of the other crops they collect from around Nova Scotia.

“We do bring in apples from the (Annapolis) Valley, and I know the sizing is a little smaller and they’re dropping off a bit quicker down there from what I hear,” Lewis said.

With fall only now beginning and Halloween around the corner, Rendell is hoping that a good pumpkin yield will also lead to good sales over the coming weeks, both in stores and at the U-pick portion of his business.

“I delivered 400 (pumpkins) to a store this morning, and some of the local guys are buying off me,” Rendell said.

Back at the co-op country store, Lewis said now that autumn is officially here, he too is optimistic there will be a demand.

“There’s been a lot of walkthrough already on them (his pumpkins), and I’m sure we’ll probably be getting another load later this week, by the way everything is moving through now,” he said.

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