At SonHarvest Seasons farm east of Riverton, the Peil family each autumn produces a menagerie of pumpkins and gourds. A visit to the farm is an immersion into the otherworldly realm of the cucurbitaceae family.
There are stony gray-blue pumpkins. Orange oblong gourds that resemble torpedoes. Red globular pumpkins like the one that turns into Cinderella’s carriage. Edible acorn squash and striped delicatas and tall jack-o-lantern pumpkins for carving.
All told, the family grows roughly 75 varieties, owner Kim Peil said. That includes its 15-acre pumpkin patch and then several acres for growing specialty gourds like Hubbard and butternut squash.
“I think our most popular pumpkins are the big ones, and they’re called Big Moose,” Peil said.
Draft horses also pull hayrides, and the farm has about 10 acres of corn mazes — one for small kids, and another that can get visitors properly lost.
The family designs a new maze each year, Peil said, “and my husband cuts it out himself without a GPS. He just has us stand with flags and mark it for him, and then he cuts it.”
The farm stays open through Halloween if the weather allows.