<\/p>\n
Larry Hauser and Teresa Hauser stood Wednesday on the edge of a field and watched with smiles as one by one, children picked out a pumpkin and hauled it off.<\/p>\n
For 16 years, Larry Hauser has watched the scene unfold, and he still isn\u2019t tired of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really enjoy the kids,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd now, I\u2019m starting to second generations from who first came here when they were older. It\u2019s fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hauser opens up his one-acre field of pumpkins every year as families wander the one-acre plot and pick a pumpkin. This year was his busiest.<\/p>\n
\u201cSaturday was like a zoo here,\u201d Hauser said. \u201cI had cars parked all the way down the road.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hauser, 76, is a retired newspaper printer with a farm north of Cortez on Road L. He raised ostriches, but as he sold them off, he looked out one day and thought to himself, \u201cWhat can I grow there?\u201d<\/p>\n
The answer has made his property a popular spot for families to stop in the fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love that everyone takes pictures. They sometimes show me how people are growing over the years. And now I have second generations coming back,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
This year, for the first time in 16 years, Hauser had to turn a few schools away.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just don\u2019t have enough pumpkins to go around,\u201d Hauser said Wednesday as a bus of students unloaded. \u201cI had to tell a few schools not to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
His field was nearly stripped bare Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just don\u2019t have enough pumpkins for them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Hauser estimated he grew about 2,500 pumpkins this year, but it wasn\u2019t enough to meet demand. And although he still has a few dotting his field, he picked up pumpkins from Safeway this year to fulfill his annual tradition of delivering pumpkins to the Dolores School District bought by the Dolores Food Market. After being carved by the older Dolores students, they are displayed on Halloween night in front of the Dolores Food Market.<\/p>\n
But when asked if he\u2019ll grow pumpkins next year, he hesitated.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really want to travel while I can,\u201d Hauser said.<\/p>\n
Teresa Hauser, his daughter and Alan Seaton, helped Hauser out this year and hope to continue the tradition.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard work, I never realized how much hard work it is,\u201d Teresa said. \u201cThere is more to it than throwing seeds out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
When you are a pumpkin farmer, Teresa said, there is a lot to worry about. You worry about a late frost, and about an early frost that will kill the pumpkin. And there is weeding and watering.<\/p>\n
But it is all worth it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter that first freeze, when the vines die down and there is a sea of gold and orange pumpkins in the field, it is all worth it,\u201d Teresa said.<\/p>\n
Hauser said his plants produced a little less this year, but other local farmers, one which didn\u2019t want to be named because they grew their pumpkins for charity, said they got rid of every one of their pumpkins too.<\/p>\n
Bobbe Jones, who grew pumpkins for the last several years, didn\u2019t grow any this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe actually had the seed and everything to do it this year,\u201d she said. \u201cBut we were doing home improvements this year and just didn\u2019t have the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jones said they might grow pumpkins again next year.<\/p>\n
But the county seemed to be pumpkin-crazy this year as both Safeway and Wal-Mart were out and City Market was running out on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Hauser still had a few dotting his field.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe get families out here. That is what keeps us going, it is all the generations we\u2019ve had out here,\u201d Teresa said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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