SEAN BOSTON
Hutch Post
MOUNDRIDGE, Kan. — The leaves are starting to change, and sooner or later the weather will too, but one thing is certain, fall begins on Sunday morning, and pumpkin patches will soon be open.
P and M Pumpkin Ranch in Moundridge will open for the season on Saturday, Sept. 21, for its 11th year.
"We are gearing up," co-owner Jamie Kaminkow said. "We are super excited to be ready, all the decorations are going into place. All of those just last minute details that we love to have ready for the families that come to see us."
If you attended P and M last year, you'll notice some changes in 2024.
"First we added our 'Piggy Back Ride,'" Kaminkow said. "Those are new for this season, we're super excited for everybody to come try those out. In that area we have also added a 'Mother Baby Barn' for nursing mothers and mothers with infants that just need a quiet place to pull away and take care of their babies. We've also added a paintball area, so we'll have paintball this season. The people can shoot the guns across the creek to take out the targets, there will be some friendly fire going on over there. We added a pavilion with extra seating for those that are eating, so they can get into the shade. We are adding a couple new food items, with the main one being the 'MacDog' which is macaroni and cheese on top of a hot dog."
The ranch first opened its doors in the fall of 2014 under owners Tim and Jamie Kaminkow. The couple never envisioned the patch becoming a destination like it has over the years.
"If someone would have even told us like season five, season six, that this is what it would look like in season 11, I don't think we ever would have believed them," Kaminkow said. "It has been such a crazy and amazing ride. We are just so thankful to all the families and schools, church groups and businesses that come out to see us every fall that let us continue to do what we do and provide new activities for them to come enjoy every season."
The idea of starting a pumpkin patch and ranch was something that the family never thought would happen on their 54-acre farm, that previously was a wheat field.
"It was a three-fold reason why we started the pumpkin patch," Kaminkow said. "The first reason was that my husband was super busy and just not on the farm very often, and we had two toddlers at the time. He realized he was going to miss them growing up if something didn't change, so we just started praying for a way to be able to provide an income off the farm, so that was the first reason. The second reason is that we wanted a way to teach our two daughters the value of hard work, and the third reason is that we are just so thankful for our farm. We wanted a way to give back to God what he had given to us and our farm, by providing a place for families to come, spend time together and enjoy fall."
The name of the ranch was chosen after the names of the two daughters, Paityn and Macy.
"We spent quite a bit of time just trying to come up with a name," Kaminkow said. "When we started this place, we were literally starting at ground zero. There was nothing that didn't have to be figured out. We did not have any history growing pumpkins at that point, so we had to come up with a name, a slogan, figure out how to build a website, so there was a lot to figure out. Once we did come up with 'P and M Pumpkin Ranch' it just kind of clicked. We knew that was the one to stick with out of all the other names we had came up with."
The process of making sure the grounds are ready for the season is quite a long one.
"We plant in mid-June, because most pumpkins take anywhere from 90-120 days to grow," Kaminkow said. "They are starting to turn orange by the beginning of September, and then they're ready to go by opening day this coming weekend. We actually added up our hours just guesstimating this summer and there's over 1500 hours in growing the pumpkins. There are three of us that are weeding five mornings a week."
Kaminkow has had to figure out how to make sure the pumpkins and the corn field grew, despite the state being in a drought.
"We've actually had a little bit more rain this year than we did last year," Kaminkow said. "So obviously we're kind of in our fourth year of a drought. Last year's corn maze we called it extremely family friendly, because it only got to be about three to four feet tall, so you could see out, so you never had to worry about being lost. We have had enough rain this year, because we cannot irrigate our corn maze, but we've had enough this year that it will be a challenge to find the way through the maze. Pumpkins don't like to have too much water, but they don't want to be too dry either, so you kind of just have to find that sweet spot that keeps them going the way they want to keep growing."
Although the Kaminkow family decided to plant pumpkins, there was a thought of growing Christmas trees since Tim grew up on a Christmas tree farm on the east coast.
"We did think about growing Christmas trees," Kaminkow said. "Where he grew up on the east coast Christmas trees grow really easy and a lot faster than you can in Kansas. They're not necessarily the easiest things to grow. Pumpkins kind of ended up being a fall season and figuring out how to grow pumpkins is kind of where we started with it. We love spending time with our girls, so it kind of seemed like the next best fit for us."
Kaminkow said she's not sure about how many pumpkins are in the field, but she knows there are a lot.
"We plant a little bit differently, but it's a total of 10-12 acres that we plant," Kaminkow said. "A mini pumpkin plant might put off 10-12 mini pumpkins, but your big jack o'lanterns might put off like 3-4. We have about 80 different varieties of pumpkins that we plant. Besides the traditional orange pumpkins, we have them in every shape and every size, white, pink, red, blue, greenish, spots, some have stripes, it's amazing all of the different ways pumpkins grow."
While P and M sees many families visit every fall, if you attend on a school day, you will more than likely find school busses in the lot. P and M offers school field trips to the ranch, and the staff has it down to a well-oiled machine.
"That rotation schedule came up during COVID when we were trying to have as many schools out here as possible, keeping them separate," Kaminkow said. "The feedback we got at the end of the season was how much the teachers loved the organization and structure. I don't think we'll ever get rid of it."
The ranch also implemented a change this summer, hosting it's first-ever 'Summer Nights' events.
"We've also planted veenus and sunflowers, mainly just to help decorate the farm and for our customers in the fall to enjoy and take pictures with," Kaminkow said. "This past summer we thought well let's do a 'U-Pick' flower event and we'll open up the big red with the slides and the mini golf. We did some summer themed donuts and a lemonade slushy. It went over so well that we are definitely going to be continuing that in the summer seasons to come. It will be the first three weekends in July each year with the 'U-Pick' flower event."
P and M Pumpkin Ranch is open Sept. 21-Nov. 3 at 311 16th Ave in Moundridge. They will be closed on Monday and Tuesday, but open Wednesday and Thursday (4 p.m. - 7 p.m.), Friday (10 a.m. - 7 p.m.), Saturday (10 a.m. - 8 p.m.) and Sunday (10 a.m. - 7 p.m.). You can find out more information on the P and M Pumpkin Ranch Facebook page.
