PEOPLE across the Bradford district interested in getting ready for Halloween can call into a Horsforth farm which has a whopping 70,000 pumpkins to choose from.
Horsforth Pick Your Own is run by the Kemp family, who have owned the farm off West End Lane, Horsforth, since the 1960s.
Joe Kemp, 29, who was born and bred in Horsforth, said: "We moved on to the farm in the 1960s but my dad set up the pick your own strawberries in 1987 and I started the pumpkins five years ago.
"I got the idea for pumpkin picking at university after speaking to one of my friends who had set up his own Pick Your Own pumpkin farm in Northallerton.
"It's a very American thing, but pumpkins are perfect for the autumn when their orange colour matches the colours of the changing leaves."
Horsforth Pick Your Own has plenty of pumpkins for people to choose from - six fields full of 70,000 pumpkins!
"Halloween is big part of why people want to pick pumpkins, but part of the appeal for the general public is that people want to see pumpkins on a grand scale,” said Mr Kemp. “It really has exploded in popularity.”
He said people can now book a place to pick pumpkins. The farm has plenty of Halloween-related displays and the £2.50 ticket price includes a tractor and trailer ride to the fields.
“We get really busy this time of year. That’s why we’re ticketed.
"People want to get pumpkins of different sizes and different colours.
"We’ve 18 different varieties and this year we've also got white ones, blue ones, pink ones and yellow ones.
"The blue ones, called Crown Prince, are the tastiest. They're quite hard to carve but I've seen people paint them instead.
Even though people buy them to carve for Halloween, Mr Kemp also added: "They are a food at the end of the day, and there are thousands of recipes out there for pumpkin.
"My favourite is Dauphinoise pumpkin, which is usually used for potatoes. It's high in calories but it really tastes good."
He said the pumpkins are propagated at the beginning of May in Hull, where the Kemps buy them as small seedling plants.
They are then planted from May 15 to 20 in the field under a layer of corn starch paper which keeps the plants moist.
They are ready by mid-September and the pumpkin pick your own opens on October 1.
To book a place at Horsforth Pick Your Own, visit www.kemps.farm
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