Harvest
season has come upon us once again, and local
community garden center Urban Roots has all of the farm connections to make
this time of year a success.
Pumpkins
are of the utmost demand, with Halloween being right around the corner.
Urban Roots gets their pumpkins from the Kelkenberg Farm of Akron. Patti
Jablonski-Dopkin, Urban Roots manager, remembers visiting the farm with her son
before they became a pumpkin supplier.
“I used to
take my son out there because they have a beautiful farm, and they'll take you
on a horse-drawn cart out to the pasture and pick your own pumpkins,” she said.
Jablonski-Dopkin
says that their shipment from the Kelkenbergs included both smaller, pie
pumpkins and larger, jack-o-lantern pumpkins.
“The
larger pumpkins you really don't cook with. It's the smaller pie pumpkins that
you're going to cook with,” she said.
According
to Jablonski-Dopkin, Urban Roots received over 100 large pumpkins from the
Kelkenberg harvest.
Clearly,
even in the city, pumpkins are in high demand. Local community organization,
The Westside Art Strategy Happenings Project, came to Urban Roots to pick up
pumpkins for a carving contest on Oct. 20.
No need to
fret once the pumpkin inventory is cleared out though; heirloom squashes and
gourds will be available for purchase through the end of the season. Urban
Roots members can educate those who are interested about the best ways to cook
them for upcoming holiday meals. By Lauren Coppola and Samantha Wulff
