‘There’s something strange in the pumpkin fields.’ Drought & heat frightening farmers

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FREDERICTON — The pumpkin patches on a number of Canadian farms are starting to look a bit frightening across the country, but not in a way that makes them ready for Halloween.

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“It’s sure been a spooky season,” said Greg MacKenzie, the owner of Mackenzie Produce in Stratford, P.E.I.

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He said his own farm has a reduced yield of pumpkins this year. A number of vines have died off and the jumbo-sized orange fruit does not weigh as much as it should, he said.

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Most of them might be too small to harvest this year, he added, which could cut into how much he is able to export to the United States.

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“Normally we count on September rains to kind of save us,” MacKenzie said. “If we don’t see something in the next couple weeks, it’s going to be pretty hard to make it up.”

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MacKenzie isn’t alone. Across Canada, some farmers have shared similar stories with The Canadian Press, explaining that drought and extreme heat are cutting into the size and supply of pumpkins that are usually carved into jack-o’-lanterns for Halloween or frozen and canned for food.

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“We’re watching very closely every week just to see how things are progressing,” Mackenzie said “It’s a fine line of, you know, treading water at this point, but with no water to tread.”

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There were few regions spared from this season’s punishing drought.

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The Canadian Drought Monitor for August said about 71 per cent of the country was classified as abnormally dry or moderate to extreme aridity, including 70 per cent of Canada’s farmland.

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The unusual weather patterns could be a troubling sign of more problems in the future.

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In a recent assessment of the latest scientific research, the Canadian Climate Institute notes that global warming is increasing the risk and severity of droughts in parts of the country that are already struggling to cope with water shortages.

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Citing recent data from Statistics Canada, the institute also says droughts were a significant factor in driving a surge in crop insurance payments to farmers in recent years, as the payouts rose from $890 million in 2018 to $4.9 billion in 2024.

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The severity of the drought in central Alberta has turned most of the grass and greenery a muddy shade of brown, Mike Williams of Ponoka, Alta., said.

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He explained he began watering the parched soil on his farm to get it ready in May, a few weeks before he planted a crop of pumpkins and squash.

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“I’ve been hauling water,” he said. “I hauled almost 300,000 litres of water … since around May.”

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While last year was mostly a writeoff, he said he is “feeling better” about the crop this year with some of the pumpkins weighing between 30 and 40 pounds.

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Roy Phillips, owner of the Phillips’ Family Farm, in northwest London, who grows pumpkins, gourds and squash, said the season has delivered a mixed bag of weather, with rain in the first few months, followed by six weeks of dry weather. “Oh, it’s kind of weird, but it’s been a crazy season all year,” he said.