Page 5 of Love and Lattes at Pumpkin Hollow
‘We could sell pumpkins!’ I said excitedly. ‘We could create a pumpkin patch. Do you remember we went to one once, what was it now – three years ago?’
‘Oh, yeah, we had fun,’ she replied. ‘It was miles away, though. They had pumpkins to pick outside but also that area where they had piles of all pretty, different kinds of pumpkins ready to grab, and they sold food and drink too, right?’
I nodded. ‘I remember thinking, though, that it could have been even better. They could have had much more there. Like an autumn trail. And somewhere for people to take photos. Plus, it was a long way for us to go. What if I could do something like that at the farm? Not just a place to sell pumpkins but we could make it a destination for people to come to in autumn.’
Sabrina caught on quickly. ‘That sounds like it would be lots of fun, and you love this time of year so I bet you’d be great at making everyone feel all autumnal. There’s just one snag in your plan, though…’
‘We don’t grow pumpkins?’
‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘You don’t have any pumpkins.’
‘We don’t have any yet,’ I corrected. ‘That pumpkin patch we went to didn’t grow all those pumpkins, some they had bought in like the supermarket does. So, I could do that too.’ I stood up abruptly. ‘I need to go and talk to Dad about this. Before Mr Suit Man gets there and starts to convince Dad we need to sell up. If I can persuade him to let me try to create a pumpkin patch, I can buy us some time.’
‘Hang on, you mean you want to do one this year? As in for this autumn? We’re already almost at the end of September, and wouldn’t a pumpkin patch need to be open for October?’ Sabrina looked up at me with wide, blue eyes.
I gulped. She was right. It was extremely late to even consider doing something like this. But what choice did I have?
‘I’ll work it out somehow, right? If I can get Dad to let me try. I better head straight back to the farm and talk to him about it before Mr Suit Man finds us,’ I said, already moving away from the table. Now I’d had this thought, I couldn’t let it go. Something like excitement was coursing through my veins. I had felt stuck for so long, so worried without knowing what the hell I could do about it. But now I had a slight glimmer of hope on the horizon. I just wished Sabrina wasn’t still looking so anxious.
‘It would be a lot of work, Willow,’ she cautioned.
‘I can work hard,’ I found myself snapping at her, a little bit irritated that she wasn’t as excited as me. ‘You said it yourself – I love autumn. I am going to show my dad that if we do this, we could keep our farm. Wish me luck!’
I hurried out of the café before she could talk me out of it, which I could see by her face she was itching to do. I knew that my plan was outlandish even for me but something deep down in my gut told me that I had a chance to make it work.
I walked back through the High Street, this time really drinking in everything around me. The pumpkins outside the shops, the pretty autumnal flowers and the trees hinting at the golden hue they would soon become.
Everyone loved the seasons here. Christmas was insane in Birchbrook and every year, people seemed to get more into autumn and Halloween. Shops stocked more and more autumnal décor. Last year, I had bought an autumn wreath and a pumpkin-scented candle! There was no stopping the seasonal-décor trend so why not embrace it and do something at the farm that would bring in revenue at this time of year?
I strode quickly towards my farm, trying to imagine what a pumpkin patch might look like, and the work that would be involved. Sabrina was right that it could be a huge undertaking considering how close October was now. But we couldn’t afford to wait until next year. Dad wouldn’t let us, I knew that for sure. He was close to accepting this Henderson offer and we hadn’t even heard what they had to say about it. I had to get to Dad and put the pumpkin-patch idea into his head before Mr Suit Man turned up. Convince him that I could do it and how popular it would be. My town loved seasonal things. Surely people would come? I just had to make a plan for how I could make it happen in a really short time.
My confidence faltered a little bit when my home came into view. I could see the farmhouse ahead and I thought about how the farm had changed since I was young. Dad had seemed to have always been cheerful back then, the farm had been thriving and the house warm and light. Everything was in good nick back then compared to how it was now. And, of course, my mum had still been alive.
Thinking about her made me sad but it did remind me that autumn had always been a huge part of my life. She had loved this time of year and had made me love it too. I remembered how she had always carved a pumpkin with me and how we carried lanterns in the Halloween parade together every year. And my mum loved the birch trees as much as me; she would sit under them on crisp, sunny autumn days to read her favourite books and watch me playing in the falling leaves. When we walked home from school, we’d both pick up conkers and put them in bowls to keep the spiders away. And for my birthday, Mum would always bake me a cake that was covered in leaves made of icing. ‘Willow leaves for my Willow,’ she would say.
Mum would have loved creating a pumpkin patch, I was sure of it.
‘I hope you’re looking down and cheering me on for this,’ I whispered into the wind as I walked through our gate and up the tree-lined drive.
A joyful bark sounded then and Maple ran out of the farmhouse to greet me with a cheerful wag of her tail. Maple wasn’t worried. She was always happy. Dogs were the best.
I ruffled her fur when she met me. ‘Where’s Dad then, girl? Because I have had an idea that could mean we can stay here.’
Maple barked and set off towards the house so I followed her and gathered my courage to talk to Dad.
As I walked inside, I glanced back and looked over at the field to the side of the farm that was currently empty of anything other than some mud and grass. We didn’t use that area currently for anything because the soil wasn’t good enough for our crops, so could that be where the pumpkin patch might work? We couldn’t grow pumpkins there, of course, but there was no time to grow them for this year anyway. So, I could use the area to display pumpkins for people to pick up, and create an autumnal experience for visitors.
If it went well and we wanted to grow our own pumpkins, that could happen in one of our crop areas in the future.
I knew I was maybe getting ahead of myself but that was my fatal flaw – I was a dreamer and once I imagined doing something, I couldn’t let it go. The patch was firmly planted in my mind now; I just needed a way to make it happen. If I could get Dad to let me at least try.
Following Maple, I found my dad in the kitchen. He’d changed into a jacket and tie ready for his meeting and he was putting the kettle on the Aga to boil. Guilt washed over me that I’d sent Mr Suit Man in the wrong direction. He was bound to be late now, and that would be my fault.
Was I being selfish trying to do all I could to save the farm?
6
‘Can we talk?’ I asked my dad nervously as I stood in the doorway to our kitchen.
