Yearning for a Pumpkin Patch

In past years, I would wait to buy pumpkins until my church's pumpkin opened.  This year, we're not having a pumpkin patch.

We made that decision before COVID-19.  We are in the very slow process, made even slower by this pandemic, of selling the part of land where we put the pumpkin patch; we thought that the land would be a construction site by now.

Even if we hadn't been in the process of selling part of our land, we likely would not have had a pumpkin patch.  Our pumpkin patch was set up to rely on volunteer labor.  The truckload of pumpkins arrived, and volunteer labor took it from there:   unloading the pumpkins, setting up the patch, staying at the patch during most daylight hours.

Once, we had a church with more younger members, and staffing the pumpkin patch was arduous, even then.  The burden of work fell unfairly, but a lot of people remained committed.

Last year was one of the first years that I felt the commitment level drop.  Fewer of us could volunteer.  Fewer of us felt the need to continue to offer the pumpkin patch.  It seemed like a HUGE amount of work for very little profit.

I always loved the way the pumpkins transformed the corner of the church property.  I always wished that we could have pumpkins year round.  But I know that if we did, I'd eventually stop seeing them in the same way.

I miss the seasonal marker.  We are still having our daily highs in the 90's, so it's hard to remember that it's really October.

I wonder how many churches are doing pumpkin patches this year.  I'd be happy to support a different area church.  As I've been on the lookout for a church with a pumpkin patch, I'm aware of how few churches are on my commuting routes.