Pumpkins grown at the Hunter Farm in Mason County, Washington.

One of the delights of the autumn season is the colorful display at Wedgwood’s own Pumpkin Patch, 7744 35th Ave NE.  This year’s Pumpkin Party begins Sunday, October 2, 2022.

On October weekends the pumpkin sales are hosted by a local Scout troop.  This site of Hunter Farms is an extension of the Hunter’s home farm in Mason County, Washington, on Hood Canal.

In the 1950s Bill & Carol Hunter began growing and selling Christmas trees on their Mason County farm.  They expanded to find consumer markets and they found a good new sales location in the growing neighborhood of Wedgwood in Seattle.

After a few years the Hunters acquired their present property at 7744 35th Ave NE, which has been a Christmas tree sales lot and community Gathering Place for more than sixty years now.  The Hunters lot in Wedgwood is used for other community events including Pumpkin Weekends in the month of October.

Hunter Farm Visitors Center in Union, Mason County, Washington. Photo courtesy of JRV.

After World War Two ended in 1945, there was a housing boom in northeast Seattle as young couples returned from the war, married and started families.  Wedgwood was a new area with starter-homes built by developer Albert Balch.  These houses filled up with young families who wanted to begin their own holiday traditions such as putting up a Christmas tree at home.

In addition to house-building, Balch had bought vacant land at what was to become the major commercial intersection of Wedgwood on 35th Ave NE at NE 85th Street.  In the 1950s Balch was asked to give permission for the Hunters to sell Christmas trees there at the southeast corner of the intersection and he readily agreed.  The Christmas tree lot at 85th enhanced the goodwill and neighborhood spirit which Balch wanted to promote as a community builder.

In the 1960s the Hunters were able to acquire their present site at 7744 35th Ave NE.  Now for more than sixty years the Hunter Tree Farm in Wedgwood not only hosts the annual Christmas tree lot but is also a community Gathering Place, year-round.  Every October the annual Pumpkin Patch sprouts at the Hunters site with produce from the home farm in Mason County.

Tis the season to be Pumpkin. Photo of the Hunter Farm, Mason County, courtesy of JRV.