GRAPEVINE, Texas — These are spooky times, indeed. A favorite Halloween activity could get a bit more pricey this holiday season.
The owners of Hall’s Pumpkin Farm in Grapevine said they had to pay more to get their pumpkins in this year.
“Freight went up more than the actual pumpkins, but you combine them together and it’s probably in the neighborhood of 15, maybe 18% more than we paid last year,” owner James Nelson said.
“They’ve kind of got you between a rock and a hard place: You got a pumpkin farm, you have to have pumpkins for it or what do you have?”
And remember the drought we went through?
“It really put a damper on some of it and the productivity on the pumpkins: The yield wasn’t quite what (the growers) expected,” Nelson said.
As a result, Nelson told WFAA it was a little tricky finding some of the smaller and specialty pumpkins.
“We had a hard time finding the minis, which are about as big around as a coffee can. It was harder to find those. And I don’t know if the plants were more delicate or what the problem was, but there just wasn’t as many of those.”
High gas prices haven’t helped either.
“Diesel’s gone sky high and most of the (delivery) trips are between 300-400 miles they make and they’ve gotta pass it on to somebody. They’ve gotta eat, too,” Nelson said.
But despite all of this, Nelson said they’ve chosen not to charge customers more for pumpkins this year.
“Our pumpkin prices are exactly the way they were last year. Our customers can’t help it that we have a hard time getting them, so we try to stay right there and make everybody happy,” Nelson said. “It’s a family tradition. And tradition’s important to my family and as long as we can help other families have tradition, too, that’s what it’s all about.”