Fairbank Animal Farm: In October, This P-Patch Is All About the Pumpkins

Community garden P-Patches are popular these days, but a different kind of p-patch was packing them in Saturday morning: The Fairbank Animal and Pumpkin Farm.

Tiny tots wandered around looking for the perfect pumpkin, which in some cases were bigger than said tots. Parents looked on with big smiles, keeping their eyes out for their own pumpkins as well.

Some of the parents probably even picked up pumpkins as kids themselves at the farm owned by Dave and Janet Fairbank, who began farm tours on the site 30 years ago and have grown pumpkins for the past 15. The sprawling farm, at 15308 52nd Ave., is in unincorporated Snohomish County but has an Edmonds mailing address and is not far from Meadowdale High School.

There are two pumpkins patches, and Dave says during a good year the farm produces up to 10,000 pounds of them. The farm also imports pumpkins from Mount Vernon in Skagit County to help with the rush of October sales.

Choosing pumpkins isn’t the only activity on the Fairbanks’ farm. There’s a vegetable garden, a corn maze, hay tunnel and trails. Farm animals are at the ready, waiting to be petted.

Opportunities abound for pictures, so by all means take a camera. You might even be able to get a picture with Dave, a photogenic fella with an eye patch, homemade hat, suspenders holding up orange waders, white beard and an agreeable disposition.

Admission to the Fairbank Animal and Pumpkin Farm is $2.50 for those, as the farm puts in, between the ages of 11 months and 99 years. Any younger or older, you get in free. It’s $1 and up per pumpkin, and 50 cents and up per gourd. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through October. School groups can tour the farm during weekdays in October. For more information, go to the Fairbank Farm website.