The hot, dry weather has been ideal for vacationers this summer and it's also been a boon for the local pumpkin crop.
Southern New Hampshire farmers are reporting one of the best seasons for pumpkins in years despite a lack of rain that threatened to decimate the crop.
"It's been great," said Andy Mack Jr., general manager of Mack's Apples in Londonderry. "We had some concerns because the summer was so dry. Pumpkins love heat and there was no shortage of that this summer."
For many local farmers, Labor Day weekend marks the unofficial start of pumpkin season. While some farmers said they have been selling pumpkins for at least a couple of weeks, the holiday weekend is traditionally the time when many people start looking to buy pumpkins.
"It's amazing," Mack said. "The minute people start thinking fall, they think pumpkins."
Phil Ferdinando of J&F Farms in Derry said he has had plenty of customers looking for pumpkins.
"People are buying pumpkins," he said. "We sold a lot this weekend."
For Sevgi Goktug of Methuen and her 4-year-old daughter, Ela, yesterday was the perfect day to choose a pumpkin.
Mother and daughter ventured to Peters Farms in Salem, where Ela enjoyed picking up the pumpkins, especially a large one that was for sale. Ela ended up bringing home a small one the size of a cantaloupe that she could color and decorate.
"We will get the big one in a couple of weeks," her mother said.
John Peters, who runs the 99-year-old farm with his brother Mike, said the smaller pumpkins are usually sold first and used for decoration. The bigger pumpkins end up being jack-o'-lanterns later in the season, he said.
Carl Majewski, an agricultural resources educator for the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension, agrees with local farmers that it is an exceptional year for pumpkins. A year ago, the opposite was true when a cool, rainy summer hurt production.
"It has been quite a year, especially compared to last year," he said. "It's a warmer, drier season than normal."
Pumpkins, like most other crops, are about two to three weeks ahead of schedule, he said.
At Apple Acres in Windham, Sam Nassar said just looking at his pumpkins is evidence it will be a strong season.
"The color is remarkable," he said. "They have that nice, bright, clear color."
It takes just enough moisture in the spring and warm, dry conditions with a moderate amount of water throughout the summer to produce a bumper crop of pumpkins, farmers said. Irrigating pumpkin plants can make a big difference, some farmers said.
"I'm happy with the way things are this year — you can't ask for much better than that," Nassar said. "They got going and grew good in that hot weather."
While many of the pumpkin seeds planted in the spring don't always grow, that wasn't the case this year, Nassar said.
"I never saw the plants come out of the ground with such uniformity. (Almost) every seed came up," he said. "It was such a pleasure to work with the conditions that we had."
At J&F Farms, Ferdinando said although most of his crops did well this summer, his pumpkins just didn't get enough water and he doesn't irrigate them.
"The plants were under a lot of stress and didn't make a lot of pumpkins," he said.
Nevertheless, he expects to have plenty for sale this season.
"We always have a last-minute rush before Halloween," he said.
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