A few weeks ago, I wrote about the sweet siren song that rings loud out of the Walmart in Rio Grande. It sings even now, sweet as ever: Come buy our $3 pumpkins, ready to carve … But if you drive around Cape May County you’ll notice that plump pumpkins are sold at farm stands and garden centers in nearly every single town. Spend a few extra bucks: Support a local business!
My understanding is that the pumpkins at farm stands are sourced from places in New Jersey and nearby Pennsylvania. That goes for chains like ShopRite, too. I bought two carving pumpkins at ShopRite this year – I like supporting our local grocery. Many of these places – Secluded Acres in Rio Grande, Clinton Conover Farms just outside of Stone Harbor, Legates Farm in North Cape May – are getting ready to close shop for the winter, and pumpkins represent a great last-minute push. Gotta store the nuts for winter, nuts being money.
Support the kind of business you want to stick around. I was supremely tempted to buy the cheap WalMart pumpkins, but where’s the joy in that? Lugging orange fatties around in my squeaky metal cart, watching them roll around while I fumble around the toy aisle… It’s joyless.
My friend nudged told me to put the pumpkins back and head to Secluded Acres, which has a friendly staff and a beautiful arrangement of pumpkins in all shapes and sizes. My bounty: a massive white pumpkin, an elongated yellow pumpkin and two medium-sized Turk’s Turbans, specialty gourds with a wide “head” like a mushroom.
I would hate for displays like the ones at Secluded Acres to disappear because I couldn’t help but cheap out at WalMart. Do what I almost didn’t: Buy your pumpkins local!
