Late September is primetime for pumpkin picking, according to Duluth’s Farmer Doug.

He’s got his pick your own pumpkin patch up and running Friday’s through Sunday’s for the last weeks of September, bonus week in October if the weather cooperates. But past that it’s only a matter of time before the frost starts to ruin the fun.

“We have a situation up here with frost,” says Doug Hoffbauer, “We have to get these pumpkins picked before we get a hard frost. Typically that’s October 1st or 2nd that we get that first 30 degree night.”

“So now is the time that they are being picked whether it’s one of a time for you or boxes on time for a commercial time.”

As for the season, Doug says that things are looking up compared to previous years. “Well it started out kind of wet and that made for cold soil,” he says, “but we’ve had plenty of nice warm days to rake them up and by the time it got to the ripening season we were on schedule. I like to see half the field ripe by Labor Day and we were there and now we are 99% ripe. We are in good shape.”