Hartsburg Pumpkin Festival expects 40,000 visitors
HARTSBURG, Mo. (KMIZ)
A hot, dry summer left Hackman Farms short on pumpkins ahead of this weekend’s Hartsburg Pumpkin Festival.
The festival takes place every October in Hartsburg, a small village in southern Boone County. This year’s event will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Jeri Cooper, vice president of the festival, said she expects more than 40,000 visitors over the two days.
Cooper said homeowners along Main Street allow the festival to use their properties for the event. Homeowners are reimbursed for any vendors who use electricity or water from their property. Hartsburg had a population of 133 residents, according to the 2020 Census.
The festival will feature more than 190 vendors and more than 250 booths, but only one pumpkin farmer: Hackman Farms, which supplies all the pumpkins sold at the festival, Cooper said.
Owner Jo Hackman said her family farm has supplied pumpkins for the festival for several years. On Friday, she was arranging pumpkins of various sizes in the front yard of a home on South Bush Landing Road.
Hackman said her farm typically produces significantly more pumpkins than it did this year, forcing the farm to purchase some from another farm. The farm also usually sells several “Big Max” pumpkins, an exceptionally large variety that can weigh more than 100 pounds.
Hackman said she could not point to one reason for the lower production but said the hot, dry summer may have played a role.
“Wasn’t good this year, crop failure on them,” Hackman said.
Taylor Tuttle, program manager for Missouri Grown at the Missouri Department of Agriculture, said pumpkin patches are an important part of agritourism, which brings people to farms and other agricultural sites.
Missouri brought in more than $19 million in agritourism sales, according to the 2022 Census of Agriculture.
“Missouri really does have a wide variety of agriculture, which provides a lot of opportunities for Missourians and visitors to our state to get out and learn more about Missouri agriculture,” Tuttle said.
Thirty-six pumpkin patches are members of the Missouri Grown program, including Hackman Farms.
Planning for next year’s festival will begin almost immediately after this year’s event ends Sunday. Cooper said the festival’s revenue comes from $5 parking fees and vendor fees.
“It takes all year. We’ll start as soon as this is over…and we just start going from there and start planning everything,” Cooper said.
