At Clifton Lutheran Church, the pumpkins are multiplying.
What began 10 years ago as a modest experiment — with about 600 pumpkins and a congregation wondering whether anyone would actually buy them — has grown into one of the church’s biggest annual traditions. This year, roughly 2,500 jack-o-lantern-sized pumpkins are already on the church’s front lawn, with another full truckload arriving in two weeks. By then, Pastor James Bixby expects the total to reach about 5,000, not counting the countless tiny pumpkins and decorative varieties scattered among them.
The pumpkins make their way from a Navajo reservation in New Mexico, where they are sustainably grown, to Clifton Lutheran Church, 150 Humphrey St., where they become everything from Halloween jack-o-lanterns to school decorations, party centerpieces and the stars of pumpkin illumination events.
And apparently, there is no shortage of takers.
Bixby says the church has become the top-selling church pumpkin operation in Massachusetts — a rather impressive destination for a crop that started as a 600-pumpkin gamble.
This last weekend, Clifton Lutheran members had help unloading all the gourds from the delivery truck — including Scouts Troop 79 and the Marblehead High Interact Club.
The pumpkin prices have remained low over the years…
A small pumpkin costs just $1. Decorative minis and other small varieties generally run $2 to $4, while the largest pumpkins range from $10 to $45. Bixby jokes that after a decade of inflation, perhaps the church should finally consider raising its prices.
For shoppers, however, the pumpkin stand remains something of a bargain.
This year’s crop also includes some particularly enormous pumpkins — the biggest Bixby says he has seen in his decade of pumpkin dealing — as well as a new gray-and-orange variety that stands out among the traditional orange.
But the real measure of the operation isn’t how many pumpkins are sold. It’s what happens to the money afterward.
Over the past nine years, the church has sent approximately $180,000 back to the reservation where the pumpkins originated. With this year’s sales, that figure is expected to pass $200,000.
That makes the annual pumpkin patch something considerably larger than a seasonal fundraiser. It has become a small bridge between a New Mexico community and a Massachusetts one, with thousands of pumpkins making the trip east and hundreds of thousands of dollars making their way back.
The scale of the operation has also changed what the church does with its pumpkins. Bulk orders now supply parties, school functions and events such as pumpkin illumination celebrations. The upcoming shipment is the largest quantity the church has ever ordered.
And Bixby is quick to point out that none of it happens because of pumpkins alone.
It happens because people keep showing up to buy them.
“The community here is so amazing,” he said, emphasizing how many volunteers, customers and local organizations have helped turn what once seemed like an ambitious pile of 600 pumpkins into a 5,000-pumpkin annual tradition.
Pumpkins are for sale daily through Oct. 31: Monday-Friday 1-5 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m.-6 p.m. and Sunday noon-5 p.m.
