PORT LUDLOW — Space Twins Provisions at White Lotus Farm & Inn will be hosting its third annual pumpkin patch on Sunday, a season-turning event full of festive activities.
The event, located at 3723 Beaver Valley Road in Port Ludlow, will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“We just have a one-day fall festival bash, open house-style, and kind of welcome people onto the barn lawn,” said Jules Spruill-Smith, who co-owns Space Twins Provisions.
Space Twins Provisions produces vegetables and flowers on a quarter of an acre.
“Because we’re not this acres upon acres pumpkin patch, we try to make it a place where people can come and do more than just pick a pumpkin,” Spruill-Smith said.
People can make an afternoon of visiting the farm, Spruill-Smith said. The event puts a cap on Space Twins’ season, as they don’t grow through the winter, she added.
“This is sort of our last hurrah,” Spruill-Smith said.
The event includes music, food, drinks, lawn games, crafts and vendors.
The Jefferson County Boys will play what they describe as “hard-core bluegrass” from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Spruill-Smith said.
Fastbreaker Farms, which makes sweet and savory waffle sandwiches, will serve a seasonal waffle, Spruill-Smith said.
Bar Car Mobile will serve cocktails, beer and wine.
“They usually do a hot-toddy for this event because it’s cooler; we’ll see,” Spruill-Smith said.
Hot chai and baked goods also will be available for sale, with proceeds going to Sunfield Farm & Waldorf School.
Ann Spruill, Spruill-Smith’s mom, who moved to the area about two years ago, will lead a craft activity.
“She has small wood rounds and stencils and paint,” Spruill-Smith said. “It’s a make-your-own coaster or medallion or whatever.”
Space Twins and White Lotus will have vendor booths set up along with several other vendors.
The pumpkins are seeded on the farm starting in April. The bigger jack-o-lantern pumpkin variety is called Boss; a smaller variety is called Orange Smoothie.
“They have a smooth skin as opposed to a classic, ribbed jack-o-lantern,” Spruill-Smith said.
Also for sale are a variety of pie pumpkins called Winter Luxury. Space Twins also grew mini-pumpkins, including a black variety, Spruill-Smith said.
The carving pumpkins weigh 15 to 30 pounds and cost $1 per pound, with a maximum cost of $25. The pie pumpkins cost $2.50 per pound.
The pumpkins will be displayed adorning a hay pyramid structure, Spruill-Smith said.
White Lotus’ shepherd Niall Motson has moved his herd of about 80 Romney sheep into a paddock near the pumpkins to join the farm’s new resident llama, Tux, for the festivities.
“People are welcome to walk right up to the fence,” Spruill-Smith said.
Motson said he may put out a wheel barrow full of alfalfa for people to feed the sheep.
White Lotus has about 50 lambs that will be harvested for meat this fall and winter.
“They are 100 percent grass-fed, pasture raised,” Motson said. “When they aren’t eating fresh grass here, we’re getting organic hay from [the Bishop’s family farm] just next door.”
Some meat shares are still available on White Lotus’ website, whitelotusfarmandinn.com/store.
The farm tries to use every part of the animal. Friends of the farm process the skins to make rugs and clothes, Motson said.
“We do yarn, roving and raw fleece,” he continued. “That comes from the ewes that have to get shorn every year.”
Wool is sold at The Artful Ewe in Port Gamble and Bazaar Girls Yarn Shop in Port Townsend.
Visitors are welcome to walk around the property, including the Creek Trail, but are asked not to open gates or bring dogs, unless they are service dogs, and remain leashed at all times.
Space Twins Provisions sells its vegetables at the Port Townsend Farmers Market from May to September. It also sells to the Chimacum Corner Store — which is selling their carving pumpkins — and offers subscription-based CSA’s. They also have wholesale accounts with local restaurants, including Finistère, Green Crow Tacos, Cafe Tenby and Friendly Nettle.
“Something unique we do is micros,” Spruill-Smith said. “We do pea-shoots, broccoli sprouts, radish micros and cilantro micros. Those are popular with the restaurants.”
They also grow salad mix, carrots, fennel, broccolini, radishes, head lettuce, sungold tomatoes, basil, cucumber, zucchini and cauliflower.
“Going to market and having a CSA demands a variety,” she said.
Flowers grown on the farm are a collaboration between Spruill-Smith and Natalie Motson, co-owner of White Lotus. They sell their flowers exclusively to Seattle Wholesale Flower Growers Market.
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@peninsuladailynew.com.
