Prairie Gardens back open with extended hours for fall fun

Prairie Gardens farm is back open and looking to make up for lost time.

The popular u-pick fruit and vegetable business, located north of Edmonton, was forced to close in August after a stop operation order was issued for the farm by Sturgeon County.

The farm reopened to the public at the end of September, and owner Tam Andersen said the team has extended operating hours to make up for the loss of peak harvesting time.

"We're just so excited to be back at it, I've got a whole team hired back at work and they're thrilled," Andersen said.

The farm will be open from 9:30 a.m. until 7 p.m. every day until Oct. 31, and she said people should budget two to three hours per visit to get in as many activities as possible.

There are mazes, train rides, gem mining, a haunted house, goats to feed and scarecrows to make. And don't forget to bring a cooler for freshly picked produce, since every admission comes with a bucket for visitors to take out and fill with potatoes. 

"This has been, I kid you not, the best growing season we have ever had in 40 years," Andersen said.

It was tough for the u-pick farm during the closure, since the fields still needed harvesting, Andersen said, and she put out a call for volunteers to help. She added she was touched by the support of people travelling from across the province to help pick hundreds of thousands of pumpkins.

"It was remarkable, and we are so grateful. And you know every day we'd be out helping these volunteers," she said. "And it was fun picking pumpkins and doing the pumpkin chain gang, tossing and passing pumpkins."

"I just would walk away in tears of gratitude many days. It was just so touching."

Andersen said sales are still low since reopening, but people are coming by and the farm was full of families over the Thanksgiving weekend, picking pumpkins and taking advantage of the warm fall weather.

"We were looking to have some really good fall fun," said Khean Murphy, who was visiting the farm for the first time with his family. "It's huge, certainly has a very nice sort of festival feel to it. It's quite nice."

"We did hear it had closed. So it's exciting that it's back open, and it's good to see lots of people coming out and having fun and enjoying it," he added.