Mountain pumpkin farm reopening this weekend

WATAUGA COUNTY, N.C. — The countdown is on for Cassandra Bare and her family to bring visitors back to Harvest Farm in Valle Crucis.

“They didn’t get to come last year, and a lot of people I talked to are excited to get to come to get to support local farmers,” Bare said.

It’s a moment they have been waiting for all year.

“We lost five generations worth of work in one night, and it’s not all going to be put back together in one year,” Bare said.

It’s not back just as it was, she said, and this farm has been fixed more than the others, but they are on their way.

Last year, after Helene her pumpkins and flowers were destroyed, fencing was torn down and there was sports equipment in the fields from down the street. The damage was huge and the loss even bigger.

“We have had floods before and lost pumpkin crops before, but we have never lost everything that we worked on before,” Bare said.

While this crop may only take a year to grow, some of her others, like Christmas trees, take several years. Still, Bare looks through this field and sees a light at the end of the tunnel.

“I’m more thankful to be here this year than I ever have been or to have a crop to be able to sell,” Bare said.

They also have a beautiful pick your own flower garden that has grown back since last year.

More challenges could be heading in.

Many farmers in the mountains keep a close eye on the bean count to get an idea of how the winter will be. For every foggy morning in August a bean is put into the jar. Each bean signifies a snow storm. It may sound like silly folklore to some, but many farmers swear by it. With some counting as many as 27 beans this year, they want to be prepared.

“A farmer started back then with the bean in a jar to predict the weather because they needed to know how much they had to store for the weather. It was a way to guestimate if you will what was to come,” Bare said.