Pumpkin patch should be ready for Halloween

Vivian Brumbelow stands next to the pumpkin patch in Milan Wednesday. The patch will be sown on Saturday and used as an educational tool for students at Milan Elementary. [Photo by John A. Bowersmith/Independent]

By Tom Purdom
Staff Writer

MILAN — Come Halloween, wide-eyed kids can get a kick out of scrambling through boxes of pumpkins to find the right pumpkin. But what about an old-fashioned pumpkin patch?

Well, it's growing right now and come fall it will be a full blown pumpkin patch in Milan thanks to the village board of trustees and Corley Valdez.

Kids will be able to get the full Halloween pumpkin experience, the old fashioned way, which is a lot more fun than going into a supermarket somewhere and rifling through the boxes of orange pumpkins to find the one they want, with mom's approval of course.

The patch will be three acres of pumpkins planted and nurtured by Valdez, who works at Western New Mexico Corrections Facility and in his spare time loves to farm.

The patch will be on land with water rights, owned by the Village of Milan. When the village bought it, the purchase had a string attached. In order to keep the water rights valid, the land, or a portion of it, had to be put to some type of agricultural use.

To take the story a bit further, every year children attending Milan Elementary School are bussed to Estancia to the pumpkin patch there so they can find, then pick, their very own pumpkin.

Village Board of Trustees member Vivian Brumbelow works at Milan Elementary School and the idea came to her that Milan should use part of the land for a pumpkin patch for the area children. "This will be for the kids in our community and this includes the children from Grants," Brumbelow said. "We don't want them to feel left out."

Brumbelow brought the idea to the other trustees, who liked it. Then Valdez heard about what the village wanted to do and offered a proposal.

Valdez said he would start off with several brands of pumpkins in a three-acre patch. "You guys pretty much pick which brand of pumpkin you want to go with," Valdez said to the trustees.

Part of the plan includes teaching the children about agriculture, providing hay rides for pumpkin pickers and eventually, maybe even an agricultural maze for the kids. "During that time I'll maintain the crop and I'll grow hay, up to 30 acres and probably no more, I just don't have the time," Valdez said.

The hay will be Valdez's cash-crop for growing the pumpkins and taking care of them.

Valdez said the amount of community involvement can be determined by the board of trustees later in the growing season.

"I thought this was something we could do for the community," Brumbelow said.

People in Milan are already starting to talk about it. "People in the community said they could have a hay ride, maybe bring a few animals out for a small petting zoo," Brumbelow said.

She envisions a pumpkin patch geared toward the family and having area families as a unit do something together.

The idea is to get the project started in the first place, then, let it grow from there into additional activities.

Valdez said the village can work with the Cibola County Extension Office on the project and, at the same time, it will allow the village to keep its water rights.

Valdez said he will plant the pumpkins in front of the alfalfa. The alfalfa is a new, high drought-resistant variety of alfalfa with a high protein content. "It won't take a lot of water," Valdez said.

"What we're after is something the kids can enjoy, something the family can enjoy," Brumbelow said.