Paradise Gardens rescue pumpkins from early frost

Matt Unrau

The town of Paradise sits at an ideal location for growing produce. Centered around the confluence of the Flathead and Clark Fork river the area has the longest growing season in Montana from the first week of May to the second week of October.

That is why Ted Seaman runs Paradise Gardens in the spot and grows thousands of pounds of pumpkins there each year.

However, the drastic dip in temperature in early October could’ve proved fatal for pumpkins turning them into nothing more than pig food. Typically Seaman leaves the pumpkins in the field until he specifically picks those that are ready to be transported out to nearby grocers.

But, this year was different. After hearing of predictions in the low teens Seaman asked his workers and other willing volunteers to harvest the patch and transport all the pumpkins to a nearby heated greenhouse. It was on Friday, October 8 that approximately eight people moved 50,000 to 60,000 lbs. of pumpkins.

“We had no choice, we would have lost them all. They would’ve just been pig food,” explains Seaman. “Fortunately for once the forecasters were on the ball.”

Seaman goes on to explain that pumpkins can take temperatures as low as 25 degrees, but that week there were lows of 13 degrees.

After the massive rescue attempt, the 18 foot by 96 foot greenhouse that typically houses tomatoes was 3/4 full of one large pile of pumpkins with only a narrow walkway in the middle.

Since then Paradise Gardens has sold 2/3 of the pumpkins to places that include Roseaur’s in Thompson Falls, the Good Food Store in Missoula and the Saturday Farmer’s Market.

Seaman has owned Paradise Gardens for 14 years and has also owned greenhouses and gardens across from Quinn’s on highway 35 for 16 years in his history.

During that whole time he has never seen the temperature dip that low that early in the year. “It’s absolutely unheard of to get that cold,” says Seaman. “We usually rely on another two to three weeks (for the pumpkins).”

Comments can be emailed to Matt Unrau at editor@VP-MI.com