By oretcnen Boehr
Senior Reponer
According to Linus in the Hal
loween TV special, "It’s the Great
Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,” the
Great Pumpkin visits only the most
sincere pumpkin patches on Hal
loween night.
A very sincere, four-acre pump
kin patch owned by Tim Curtis,
peacefully awaits Halloween night
three miles northeast of Milford.
But only 30 or 40 pumpkins
remain.
"We’re about sold out,” said
Curtis, who has been growing
pumpkins on his farm for the past
10 years.
Curtis said he raises roughly 10
tons of pumpkins per acre which
he sells to seven Lincoln grocery
stores.
Curtissaidsometimesheandhis
wife, Sharon, have people come
out to their farm to buy pumpkins.
"And we have a nursing home
coming out this week," he said.
"But we’re mostly in the wholesale
market.”
This year Curtis, 32, said he
increased his one-acre patch to
four acres.
He said the pumpkins were
doing “fantastic" this year because
they grow well in hot weather.
Curtis decided to grow pump
kins as an alternate crop because
they “seemed to be in demand,” he
said.
Most people buy pumpkins for
decoration and for their children to
carve, he said, and a few people
use them to make pumpkin pie.
This year, Curtis said, his ex
penses went up because he added
nired help and tried more expen
sive varieties of pumpkin seeds.
Curtis raises the Ghost Rider and
Jack ‘O Lantern varieties. Ghost
Rider seed is a more expensive
seed, he said.
“The Jack O’ Lantern variety is
the old standard and the Ghost
Rider is a little bit of a darker
orange," he said.
Some people like their pump
kins orange and others like them
yellow, he said, so he planted
some of each to please everyone.
Curtis said his wife and two
children don’t make many Jack ‘O
Lanterns or pumpkin pies.
“We grow 'em and we’re sick of
them," Curtis said.
Growing pumpkins is a lot of
work, he said, especially loading
them on and off trailers and haul
ing them to market._
AI Schaben/ Daily Nebraskan
Evan Curtis, 2, weighs a small pumpkin, only a portion of the 60,000 pounds of pumpkin the Curtis’
have sold. Evan Is pictured with parents, Tim and Sharon, and brother Corl, 1, at the Curtis farm
northwest of Milford.
“Sometimes it feels like we’re
burning the candle at both ends
and all we’re getting is burned,’’
Curtis said.
Curtis farms about 500 acres in
addition to the pumpkin field, he
said. He grows milo, beans, wheat,
oats and alfalfa.
Most of the pumpkins Curtis
grows are about 10 pounds and as
ig as a basketball. He said he
doesn’t like big pumpkin varieties
because they sometimes grow into
weird shapes.__
"People don’t buy them be
cause pumpkins are sold by the
pound," he said. »"They think why
spend more than $6 for one pump
kin when you could buy 10 or 12
smaller ones."
Curtis said he likesT* selling
pumpkins because it’s different,
and that he likes the holiday spirit
associated with his patch.
"It’s a seasonal thing like selling
Christmas trees,” he said. "It’s kind
of neat to watch kids run a round in
the pumpkin patch because they
get so excited.”
The Curtises have two children,
Evan, 2, and Cori, 1.
“They like to roil the small deco
rative pumpkins around in the
house,” he said.
Sharon, Curtis’ wife, said she
enjoys the pumpkin patch, too.
“You get attached to certain
pumpkins that nobody buys and
you feel sorry for them,” she said.
“It’s sort of like Charlie Brown’s
Christmas tree that nobody