Picking pumpkins

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WHITE – Third-, fourth- and fifth-graders from Sioux Valley School in Volga visited the Berndt Family Farms pumpkin patch south of White on Wednesday morning. They listened to some information from Dawnna Berndt, co-owner of the farm, shown above, then went and picked pumpkins to take home.

Cian Young, a fourth-grader, shown below, picked out a rather large pumpkin, but other kids filled their bags with smaller pumpkins. Not all were orange, either. Others included a “blue moon” pumpkin and another was pink, and the proceeds from sale of the seeds go for breast cancer research, Berndt said.

About 150-160 kids were at the Berndts’ that morning, said Principal Heather Hiltunen. The school brought the junior kindergarten through second grade earlier in the week. Sioux Valley has 305 kids total in those grades.

Hiltunen said the school wanted the kids to have an opportunity to come to a pumpkin patch and see the different varieties. She enjoyed listening to the kids as they walked around and picked out pumpkins for someone special. 

“Just give them the outside experience,” Hiltunen said, adding it was good exercise, “They’re using their muscles.” 

During October, Berndts’ pumpkin patch will host more than 1,000 elementary and special needs students, including three preschools from Brookings and South Dakota State University, and elementary schools from Brookings, Sioux Valley, Deubrook, Deuel, Hendricks and Ivanhoe, Berndt said.

“We have hosted students for about seven or eight years,” she added.

In her talk, Berndt said an acre was approximately the size of a football field and the pumpkin patch was eight acres. It takes the family four hours to plant the pumpkin field with a tractor.

“I just want kids to be a little more open to thinking agriculture can be something they can get involved in. It’s a shame there’s so many starving people when we produce enough food to feed the world. It’s corruption,” Berndt said.

The family sells pumpkins at Runnings in Brookings, has self-serve stands in Brookings, White and Volga and goes  to Watertown twice a week.

At the end of the season, the Berndts will let their cows into the field to eat the pumpkins, so nothing is wasted.

“They eat all sorts of vegetables,” including beets and cabbage, as well as the pumpkins, Berndt said. “I love this job.”