Roger Nerlin grows and harvests pumpkins at his farm near Three Forks in cooperation with Galltitn Valley Botanical
Camaraderie Among Farmers
The practice of carving faces into produce for Halloween dates back over 2,000 years to Ireland, where people celebrating the Celtic festival of Samhain would carve menacing designs into turnips and other root vegetables to ward off evil spirits.
Centuries later, when Irish immigrants came to the United States and found pumpkins, the tradition shifted. Native to North America, the bulbous squash was bigger and more suitable for ambitious jack-o’-lantern carving. Today, pumpkins are associated with fall, harvest season, and Halloween. Seasonality largely drives their demand.
Montana is not a top pumpkin-producing state, though the seasonal squashes do prefer similar northern climates. The top producers, by acres planted and amount harvested, are Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and California. Pumpkins often struggle to grow in the southern U.S. because of hot temperatures and humidity that can increase disease pressure. In Montana, the short growing season and early or late freezes can pose difficulties, but they still are a choice crop for many farmers. As autumn settles in, bountiful pumpkin patches and market stands are common sights here in Bozeman.
Also common in Montana is variable weather in our shoulder seasons. The state is filled with microclimates that trend warmer or cooler than surrounding areas, due to elevation and wind changes from mountain ranges nearby. That means it is harder to grow heat-loving pumpkins in Bozeman, elevation 4,806 feet, compared to 30 miles northwest in Three Forks, elevation 4,074 feet.
Enter Roger Nerlin, a spirited, salt-of-the-earth farmer using his land in Three Forks to his unique advantage. Nighttime temperatures at his Gallatin River–adjacent farm can be 10 degrees warmer than the cold pockets around Bozeman, effectively extending his growing season by sometimes 20 days.
Nerlin, 69, was born in Sidney, Montana, but he has lived in the Gallatin Valley since 1982. On his land he runs cattle and grows alfalfa, sweet corn, grains, squash, and pumpkins. The latter crop has inspired a long-standing partnership with other area farmers.
Instead of squashing the competition, the ensuing feat of resource sharing, collaboration, and neighborly spirit is how Roger Nerlin’s pumpkins end up a town down the valley at Gallatin Valley Botanical.
Nestled at the mouth of Bear Canyon, Gallatin Valley Botanical at Rocky Creek Farm is famous for its farm stand, cider press, fall festival, and pumpkin patch, welcoming everyone from families to foodies to educational children’s camps. Matt and Jacy Rothschiller started GVB in 2003 and then purchased Rocky Creek Farm in 2017, inheriting a long-standing partnership that former owner Pete Fay had forged a decade before with Nerlin, who described it as camaraderie “that just makes sense.”
Instead of squashing the competition, the ensuing feat of resource sharing, collaboration, and neighborly spirit is how Nerlin’s pumpkins end up a town down the valley at GVB.
Each year, Nerlin plants three acres with gourds galore, half with pumpkins and half with other ornamental squashes, comprising 30 different varieties. The raised beds are four feet wide and 2,250 feet—nearly half a mile—long. On average, he harvests 70,000 pounds of pumpkins come fall. The bulk of that goes to Matt Rothschiller at GVB, who contracts Nerlin for 120 macro-sized bins in a normal year.
The cyclical collaboration follows the growing season. It starts in mid-May, when GVB employees use seed that Nerlin ordered to start pumpkins in their greenhouses. There, they grow for about three weeks until they are ready for planting in early June.
A trailer hauls the plant starts and Rothschiller’s tractor down the road to Three Forks. Nerlin rotates crops each year, so to prepare for planting what was last year’s alfalfa acreage, he sprays herbicide and fertilizer and tills the field, then shapes the soil into rows, which are covered with a biodegradable, corn-based mulch used for weed suppression.
Typically, Nerlin shuttles two or three truckloads, or 10,000 pounds, a week to GVB throughout the fall. At GVB, the fruits are laid out for selection in their pumpkin patch and sold at their farm stand, many destined to become Halloween jack-o’-lanterns.
While GVB is certified organic, these pumpkins are for decor and carving, not eating, so Nerlin uses conventional farming practices. The pie pumpkins that GVB sells for human consumption are grown organically by Rothschiller.
This year, GVB employee Alex Fox made the trek to assist with planting. He joined Nerlin’s scrappy crew of local homeschoolers, whose teacher Jessica Ferguson found the opportunity a few years ago when Nerlin hung posters in town in search of short-term paid help.
Planting half-mile-long beds is a big feat, and using the tractor helps expedite the process.
Attached to the back of the tractor is a tool called a water wheel, which releases water and punches holes through the plastic-like mulch and soil to input the plants. With Fox driving slowly over each row, the tractor pulls a wooden pallet attached to skis that two crew members lie on, pulling pumpkin starts from their seeding trays and placing them in each hole they pass. Another crew member walks behind the impromptu mud sled to fill in any holes they miss.
The punchy planting process takes around two days. Then, the pumpkins are left to grow under the sun and Nerlin’s rotating center-pivot irrigation until around mid-September. The overhead irrigation can also be run overnight to prevent an early frost from damaging the plants. Come fall, the same crew swings back to help Nerlin with the harvest, a massive ordeal that can sometimes take three weeks.
It’s ideal to harvest after the first hard frost, which shrivels the large, spikey squash leaves so the fruits are easier to retrieve. Nerlin drives huge macro-bins out to the field, and crew members carry each pumpkin to a bin. Once full, they are held in his on-farm storage building and driven out to GVB as needed. Typically, Nerlin shuttles two or three truckloads, or 10,000 pounds, a week to GVB throughout the fall.
At GVB, the fruits are laid out for selection in their pumpkin patch and sold at their farm stand, many destined to become Halloween jack-o’-lanterns. Rothschiller says each year they typically sell every pumpkin that Nerlin grows for them. If there are leftover pumpkins, their nutrients are ultimately recycled into the soil. The farmers put them in the barn where they become a favorite snack for their hogs and sheep.
On the consumer side, once Halloween has come and passed and elaborate jack-o’-lanterns start to show signs of rot, composting is a great option. In Bozeman, Happy Trash Can holds an annual “Pumpkin Smash” event in early November where families can smash their expired pumpkins for the composters to clean up and use.
As winter sets in and the soil freezes over, the farmers get some rest before the cycle repeats. While a similar process year to year, Nerlin has fun selecting seeds to grow vibrant new varieties for his pumpkin empire. He grows everything from ghostly white varieties like White Knight and Moonshine to warty ones called Goosebumps and Corn Cob. He also plants a selection of extra-large varieties such as Growers Giant and Big Max, which can weigh an average of 100 pounds.
The biggest pumpkin that Nerlin has ever grown was 135 pounds. That’s about the weight of an average teenage girl—but still a fraction of the Montana record set by Fairview farmer Mike Cotter in 2022: a whopping 1,258 pounds.
That’s OK by Nerlin, who enjoys a simple life helping other farmers, spending time with his border collie Fly, and tending to his menagerie of crops. There doesn’t seem to be a competitive bone in his body.
Next year when you visit the Bozeman Farmers’ Market, stop by Nerlin’s booth to meet the pumpkin pioneer and treat yourself to some of his famous sweet corn. And don’t forget to check out GVB’s farm stand Tuesdays to Sundays this fall at 34297 Frontage Road.
