localS / Q&A Robert Cartwright
Pumpkins and pig races Fall rules at Holiday Farms By Robyn Passante
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et’s face it: Autumn lovers get shortchanged in the Lowcountry. September is still beach weather, and November has been all but overtaken by Christmas music and early holiday sales. Thank God for October. If you’re looking for a heaping dose of fall fun, a good bet is Holiday Farms in Ridgeland, a family-owned operation that opened in 2008 and gets bigger every year. From Oct. 1-31 they host The Great Pumpkin Patch, which seems to have a little something for everyone, including people who like to see pigs run. We caught up with co-owner Robert Cartwright for details. Q. How did Holiday Farms get started?
Q. What makes your pumpkin patch the best?
A. I have an older sister who has a huge
A. Everybody gets a free pumpkin with
pumpkin patch in Mississippi; she’s had it close to 15 years and they grow about 40,000 pumpkins. I helped her run it for the first few years it was open. My other sister got married and moved to Ridgeland about 8 or 10 years ago, and she and her husband (Mitzi and Tim Cramer) decided they would really enjoy having something for the community to do. So I moved up here and have been helping ever since. Q. Do you grow your own pumpkins? A. No, we tried one year but it’s just way too hard to grow them in this area. I have a friend in Virginia who grows them on his farm and brings ’em down. We have 40 acres, so we do a wagon ride through the woods down to the pumpkin patch that I have set up on hay, and everyone can pick a pumpkin. 26
their ($8) admission. That’s any size, while supplies last. Typically the kids pick smaller “pie” pumpkins and the adults pick larger ones. Honestly, last year on the side of the road on Hilton Head they were charging $26 for what I was giving away with admission. Plus that admission price gets you so much more. Q. Like what? A. We’ve got a petting barn, duck races,
a bounce house, playground, the Haytona Speedway, which is a little dirt track I’ve got set up and kids race around it on John Deere tricycles. We’ve got barrel racing for little kids too; I have barrels set up and kids run around the barrels with little wooden stick horses. Plus there’s washers, cornhole, horseshoes, things like that for the adults. Oh, and this year we’re doing pig races.
Q. Pigs can race? A. Yeah, supposedly. We’ll have a special pen built, and I’m training them to run around the track there. It’s kind of like a greyhound dog race. We’re calling it the Pigtucky Derby. Supposedly pigs are smarter than dogs; that’s what they say. They’re fairly easy to train. ’Course their memory isn’t that great, so you’ve gotta train ’em right up until the day they race, so they don’t forget. Q. Pumpkins and pig races. How do we get there? A. We’re at 10884 Grays Highway. I took one of those old satellite dishes and painted a pumpkin face on it, so you can’t miss it. You’re gonna see a huge 10-foot pumpkin standing at the edge of the road.
For more information, including a schedule of Pigtucky Derby race times, visit www.holidayfarmssc.com. M
hiltonheadmonthly.com
OCT 11 26 Q&A.indd 26
9/23/11 2:59:57 PM