Drumbeg farmer Ian Gilmore has found that diversification has really paid off - with soaring demand for his pick-your-own pumpkin shop steadily soaring since he opened it ten years ago.

His family has been farming beef, sheep and barley in the same area for generations. But he decided to diversify by creating a smaller family oriented open farm, Laganvale Farm at Drumbeg, located between Lisburn and Belfast, and near the Distillery Football Club.

Twenty years ago he began his Christmas tree shop but then ten years ago he ventured into pumpkins.

Now at halloween, children can come and pick their own pumpkins, draw their preferred faces on them with a pen, and the staff will then carve out the shapes for them while they wait.

placeholder image — Ian Gilmore has found soaring demand for his pick-your-own pumpkin store.

"It all started when we went on holiday to America and saw how big pumpkins were," he told the News Letter. "And then we saw it trickling down from America into England. We went over to England to visit a few pumpkin farms there, before we started to do this. And we got a bit of a feel for what they were doing in England and we knew it was working over there. So we wanted to see if that would work here as well.

"And even from day one demand was huge, from the first day we put out a wee Facebook post - even before we had an open farm.

"People went absolutely mad for it. They could see where they were grown, some 200m away, and then we bring them in and carve them for people. People have the choice of all the different colors (green white and orange), as opposed to getting your bog standard sort of orange pumpkin in the supermarkets that are probably coming from East Anglia or somewhere like that."

Last year he grew 20,000 pumpkins on some six acres - about 2.5 football pitches - but this year the crop is down about 20-30% due to the cold wet weather.

As a result they decided to harvest them a bit earlier, because they ripen well in the storage shed, but would quickly go off in the field.

Ian grows 17 different varieties in total, including the smaller gourds.

He believes there are several reasons why demand for pumpkins has soared. While turnips have traditionally been carved locally for halloween, they are much harder and difficult to work with.

"By contrast pumpkins are much brighter and easier to carved. You can get quite intricate. The idea has really come across the Atlantic from America and then filtered through England - where they are absolutely massive - and Scotland, and then over to us.

"A major factor has probably been the visual appeal of pumpkins as seen in American films and TV shows.”

LaganvaleFarm.com also has a tea room, a large indoor play area (closed over halloween), a maze made from eight foot tall corn, walking trails around the farm, sand pits, pedal cars and tractors, and large and small petting animals.

At the end of November Ian will also open his annual - a Christmas tree warehouse - where people can also choose their own tree, while their children visit the full size nativity scene with real farmyard animals.