CARLSBORG — The landmark Pumpkin Patch along U.S. Highway 101 has returned for another harvest season, but the future remains unclear.
Theresa Lassila, manager of the patch, and her father, Phil Lassila, owner of the property, said last year that they would close down the patch.
But when it was time to plant the seeds last spring, she talked her father into one more year.
“We don’t make any money off of this,” Theresa Lassila said.
“We do it because of the community — because the community loves it.”
She said she wasn’t sure whether the family would continue the 33-acre spread of squash fields, corn and straw mazes at the corner of Kitchen-Dick Road and U.S. Highway 101.
As in past years, a hay maze for small children and a corn maze for the adults and older children are also on the property.
Every September, Sunny Farms Country Store co-owner Roger Schmidt uses a tractor to cut a “Wizard of Oz”-themed message into the 6.5-acre cornfield.
This year, the line visible from the air is “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”
“This year’s theme for the corn maze is ‘Find your heart,’ and it is a caricature of the Tin Man.”
A new feature this year is a puppet show on Saturday and Sundays by a performer, Kelbie, who came from Knott’s Berry Farm in Southern California, Lassila said.
“Kelbie is also running a costume contest to really encourage kids to have fun and for their parents to come with them,” she said.
Puppet shows are at noon, 1:15 p.m., 2:45 p.m., 4 p.m. and 5 p.m.
The events are all intended to be family-friendly.
“These events are all about families,” Lassila said.
“We really encourage people to bring — and stay here with — their children and make it a family outing.”
Ever since the Pumpkin Patch opened in 1999, its four fields of pumpkins, litters of pigs, horseback riding and pair of mazes have drawn people from across the North Olympic Peninsula.
Patch hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday through Thursday.
Wagon and horse rides are offered on first-come, first-serve basis from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Cost is $10 for adults and $7 for children 15 and younger.
Children 15 and younger must be accompanied by an adult in the corn maze. Cost to enter the maze is $14 for adults and $7 for children 15 and younger.
Cost to shoot pumpkins into a field using a catapult is $5 for two chances.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige. dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
