It’s Nearly Halloween!

When fall weather comes, kids start thinking about Halloween — what kind of costume to wear, where to go trick-or-treating, where to find the biggest, scariest pumpkin. By mid October the pumpkin search is on. And farms all over the country open their gates to kids and their families looking for pumpkins, apples, winter squash and other fall treats.

The Bierwagen farm in Northern California is no exception. Kids come from many nearby communities to our farm in the Sierra Nevada foothills to hunt for the ideal pumpkin, learn how to pick apples, and have a glass of juice made from fresh apples while they eat their lunch.

The Bierwagen farm was started over 100 years ago by my great grandparents, Anna and Ludwig. In 1881 they left their home in Russia, where they farmed near the Black Sea, to take a ship to New York and find a better life. After years of battling the elements in South Dakota, they finally made their way to California, and settled on a piece of land with good soil and water. The farm they started in 1902 is still here, right where kids come to visit every October.

The Pumpkin Patch

At the farm, kids can hardly wait to head for the pumpkin patch. After lots of searching and deciding on the perfect pumpkin, they are ready to see the rest of the farm. One of the farmers leads them on a tour of the apple orchard, where they learn how apples grow and the best way to pick them—twist, then pull gently. And they try to identify some of the many varieties we grow, including Arkansas Black, Winesap, Golden Delicious, Fuji, Honeycrisp, Rome Beauty, Granny Smith and a dozen others. As they come in from the orchard, the kids can visit with the sheep, goats, pigs, chickens and cows that live on the farm. Leroy, the longhorn steer, loves apples!

After harvest, the apples are washed, polished, graded and sorted in the packing shed. Kids watch while a worker empties a 500-pound bin of apples and feeds them into the washing and polishing machine, with its whirring brushes and sponges. Next, a sharp-eyed worker checks each apple as they speed by on the conveyor belt, tossing the ugly ones into bins destined for the kitchen and the cider press. Only the best quality fruit continues to the sorting machine, where the apples go through “gates” of different sizes, and end up in bins of all one size. Only then are they put in boxes to go to market.

The farm also produces half a dozen varieties of winter squash and a dozen different kinds of gourds, many with descriptive names–including apple, swan, birdhouse, snake, sponge and turban.

Kids come by school bus with their teachers, by car with their folks, some bicycle in or ride horses; but they all go home with at least one pumpkin, a few apples and some good stories to tell their friends. I’m sure my ancestors would be happy that the farm is still producing–kids’ smiles being most important.

Alan Tangren worked at Chez Panisse for over twenty years, where as Co-Pastry Chef he was a collaborator with Alice Waters on books like Chez Panisse Fruit and Chez Panisse Vegetables. As DooF’s Director of Food Operations. He ensures that the show depicts food with historical accuracy and the same attention to detail with which Chez Panisse changed the way Americans think about food.

Related posts:

1. Adventure With Apples in the City
2. Chocolate Chunk Pumpkin Bread
3. A Trip Home to My Family Farm