News&Features 5

PERFECT
PUMPKIN
PICKING

outhlands Heritage Farms

pumpkin patch was bustling

with excitement last Saturday
in the midst of the farm’s busiest
season, as South Vancouver families
hunted for the perfect pumpkins
for carving and baking.

Pumpkins lined winding path-
ways in every direction, and a
haystack was overrun by energetic
children while parents perused or-
ganic produce at the market.

There’s a science to choosing the
perfect pumpkin for making pie,
according to Southlands’ favourite
pie recipe. Perfect “pie pumpkins”
are “smaller, sweeter, less grainy
textured” than bigger pumpkins.

The perfect pie pumpkin will
only be about 13 centimetres (six
to eight inches) in diameter.

If you can't find a pumpkin small
enough, a butternut squash acts as
a worthy alternative.

Jewel Ocampa, a visitor to the
farm, said she looks forward to re-
turning in upcoming years for an-
other visit with her family.

“My kids enjoyed it, the tire
swing and especially the hay,” Oc-
ampa said.

FARMING IN CANADA
BY THE NUMBERS

Canada is the fifth largest exporter
of food in the world.

The agriculture industry employs
13 per cent of the Canadian
population.

26,000,000

Canada is the world's third-largest
exporter of pork, raising 26 million
pigs annually.
SOURCE: AGRI-FOOD CANADA Children frolick

= > ty ar Wee

ar with a weekly farmers’ market on Saturdays.