COUNTYWIDE : Preschoolers Romp Amid the Pumpkins

If you can’t pick it up and carry it, sit on it. Or sit in it.

So goes the philosophy of the hundreds of pint-size preschoolers who visit Pumpkin City’s pumpkin farms every day.

With Halloween just eight days away, pumpkin shopping has begun in earnest. “Today we had 270 kids running through the lot,” said Doug Van Patten, manager of the Santa Ana lot. “I’m opening up the gate at 9 a.m., and here come 200 kids. The first thing they want to do is run up and down the rows of pumpkins and sit on them.”

The business began operating in 1977 out of the back of a pickup truck but now has locations in Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, Laguna Niguel and Laguna Hills.

“The first year, my wife and I just did this to earn a little bit of money for furniture. But we found we liked the pumpkin business, and each year we added a little bit,” owner Bill Derentz said. “After a while we started having children. And anything my kids liked, we added. Now we’re catering to kids.”

To create the farm, workers cover one end of a parking lot with layers of sweet-smelling straw. They also install a children’s petting zoo with pigs and goats. It is a new experience for many youngsters accustomed to suburban living.

“This is a fun place to pick a pumpkin,” Van Patten said. “It’s like being out on a farm. There are big piles of pumpkins and pony rides. Most of the kids have never seen goats or pigs up close, and when they see them, they say, ‘Wow, look at the animals!’ I get a kick out of watching their reaction. It’s pretty funny.”