On the corner of Mahan and Capital Circle is a field of orange: The Tallahassee Heights United Methodist Church Pumpkin Patch. It’s been 26 years of pumpkin contests, home-baked goods, and home-made crafts. Couples have met and a there’s even been a wedding engagement. The pumpkin patch at Tallahassee Heights is a generational event: Grown-ups who came as kids years back now bring their kids to the patch.
“For the older folks, they recently in the last few years starting tailgate parties on Friday evening for the adults. The kids come and we have movies like Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin for different things like that the kids can watch. So that’s just another family event that good for everybody and they do that every Friday evening.” Says Lay Pastor Bob Dehner.
And the group is creative with new ways to have fun. With all those pumpkins, some are bound to go rotten. But that doesn’t mean they go to waste. The church has held rotten pumpkin throwing contests.
“Although to us, the rot, we collect them in trailers back there and there’s local farmers that come and collect whatever rotten pumpkins we have and they feed it to their animals. It’s administered in multiple different ways. I mean it able to help farmers and they don’t have to pay for it and it feeds their animals.” Says Youth Ministries Director Ted Grueser.
The pumpkin patch will continue throughout the month of October. On Saturdays the church hosts free events for the Tallahassee community such as the health awareness fair next Saturday.