Central Texas farm expects successful fall crop after extremely wet spring, dry summer

WEST, Texas (KWTX) - Western Belle Farm is preparing to reopen with a successful pumpkin patch for its Pumpkin Festival after dealing with a dry summer and severe weather in the spring.
KWTX reported about the farm’s sunflower fields that were destroyed by severe weather ahead of its summer festival.
Taylor Huffman, the owner of the family farm, said their summer festival did not turn out nearly as well as past years.
“Having a really rough spring really did financially hurt us,” Huffman said. “It left us having to cut some things off our project list for fall. But, we love creating a place where people can come make memories here at the farm, and we’re going to continue trying and just pray for good weather.”
Huffman said they hoped weather conditions would be favorable for its pumpkin patch, but the extreme rainfall in the spring caused issues for planting.
“Fortunately, this year, we were unable to use it because it was so wet,” she said. “We hand planted over 3,000 seeds. Every three feet, we would put a seed in the ground. Our patch is a little bit smaller this year than we had originally planned, but for two people, that was a lot of work.”
For Huffman and her family’s farm, the extra efforts were worth it this fall, following major damage to its sunflower field in May.
“It honestly annihilated our season,” she said.
Looking ahead to the fall season, Huffman and her crew were determined to have a successful crop. Their efforts paid off, but it did come with challenges.
“We ended up with a super dry summer, struggled to keep our crops happy,” she said. “We were irrigating flower fields and our maze, and then eventually just had to turn it off.”
She also said the pumpkin patch dealt with rodents eating their pumpkin seeds, causing them to replant a good chunk of the patch.
Despite the challenges, the farm is not giving up on bringing great crops to the community for its seasonal festivals.
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