![\"DB](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/4807290_4_articleinline_LC_20pumpkin_2019.jpg\" "\\"DB")
DB O’Connor collecting some of the crop at Killarney Pumpkin Farm, Headford. Picture Larry Cummins<\/p>\nA long time ago, in the wilds of west Kerry, a young man was robbing apples when the Divil himself appeared.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But when the Divil climbed down, he found a crucifix at the base and was trapped.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After a year and a day, Jack decided to cut a deal with the Divil \u2014 on condition that he would never be admitted to hell.<\/p>\n
Many years later, when Jack died, St Peter turned him away from heaven, and the Divil kept his word at hell\u2019s gate.<\/p>\n
With nowhere to go, Jack took out his trusty knife and carved two holes in a turnip he had found nearby.<\/p>\n
Today, he still walks the darkness between heaven and hell with this lantern, looking for orchards to rob from.<\/p>\n
This story of Jack O\u2019Lantern is one of many tales you are likely to hear at this month\u2019s Spirit of Samhain Festival at Killarney Pumpkin Farm.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re at the foot of the Paps Mountains,\u201d says farm owner, DB O\u2019Connor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe area is known as Sliabh Luachra. It was cut off from the rest of the country with no major roads into the area until the middle of the 1800s. So a particular style of music, dance and storytelling would have survived here and it\u2019s full of ancient mythology and legend.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now in its fifth year, this spooktacular mini-festival, like so many great ideas, was born out of necessity. O\u2019Connor was working as a tour guide and coach driver when the covid pandemic struck.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe magic of the place is special,\u201d O\u2019Connor says. \u201cI got chatting to some colleagues when the pandemic hit and we came up with this idea of a festival.\u201d<\/p>\n
DB O’Connor collecting some of the crop at Killarney Pumpkin Farm, Headford. Picture Larry Cummins<\/p>\n
This lovely family event has become so popular that organisers have had to allocate time slots and limit visits to two hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As you wander around among the winding pumpkin vines, you\u2019ll saunter agog through the carriage of a ghost train, dance under fairy lights at a Pixie Disco and learn to cast spells at the enchanting Potion Station.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With face paint and food on offer, there\u2019s plenty of fun for everyone and of course you get to pick that all-important pumpkin.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrowing them really depends on the weather,\u201d says O\u2019Connor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey need a lot of sunshine and they got that this year. We sow the seeds in polytunnels at the end of May and when they get to a certain height we get them out into the field and plant them by hand. They\u2019re very labour-intensive. This year has been my best crop.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pumpkins are not native to these shores. Though carving scary heads out of vegetables probably goes back hundreds of years, these large orange fruits are a very new addition to the age-old Irish tradition that is Samhain.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe oldest pumpkin seeds are actually from Mexico,\u201d says Jenny Butler, lecturer in the Study of Religions at University College Cork.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Ireland, we carved vegetables like turnips or beetroots. Like a lot of the traditions they went to America from Ireland and while they were there, they were transformed. Pumpkins were bigger and easier to carve. And then with American movies and popular culture, the traditions were reimported back to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Butler, there are records and written testimony that bear witness to the use of the turnip in Ireland at Halloween.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Today, an example of what these odd vegetables might have looked like is preserved in the Museum of Country Life in Castlebar, albeit in a somewhat less organic manner.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we have here is not an actual turnip but a plaster cast of one that was sent in to us in 1943,\u201d says Clodagh Doyle, keeper of the Irish Folklife Collection.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was sent in to the Irish Folklore Commission based in UCD by a school teacher from Finntown in Donegal. Her name was Rose Brennan. She wrote a letter with it explaining that this was the type of decoration that was made \u201ctwo score\u201d before, so 40 years before. She said it was common in the area and there are mentions elsewhere of kids carving turnips. It wasn\u2019t unique to Ireland necessarily. We know that there were people carving turnips in Poland, for example. But the idea was the same: it was about keeping evil at bay or distracting evil.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Sandra](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/4807293_4_articleinline_25-16.jpeg\" "\\"Sandra")
Sandra and Joe Burns smiling together in the field at Joe\u2019s Farm in Killeagh, Co. Cork, the idea for pumpkin picking came after Joe\u2019s sister saw it in America : Picture Chani Anderson<\/p>\n
In Killeagh, East Cork, Sandra and Joe Burns have been using vegetables to keep away the evils of hunger in a rather less scary manner for over 20 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the early 2000s, they would grow and sell their produce at various farmers\u2019 markets around Cork. But in 2014, after a supermarket war that used vegetables as a loss leader, they were forced to pivot and set up Joe\u2019s Farm Crisps.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started making them in our kitchen,\u201d recalls Sandra Burns. \u201cWe\u2019d bring them along to our stalls and hand them out to people at the various markets we went to. People started asking us to make more and offering to buy them. We sold our first 37 bags in March of 2014.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today they\u2019re more likely to sell 37 pallets than 37 bags. Many of their clients are high-end hotels and artisan food shops whose customers are on the lookout for something local, unique and pure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Joe\u2019s Crisps are made using beetroots, carrots, parsnips and of course, good old-fashioned potatoes, with all of the main ingredients grown, picked, chopped on the farm and cooked in what Sandra affectionately refers to as \u2018the shed\u2019.<\/p>\n
As well as making these unique food offerings, the couple decided to invite people to enjoy their farm and to educate them around the process of growing vegetables.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could see that there was a real disconnect between people and their food,\u201d says Burns.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven chefs would ask for carrots in April and May, and we\u2019d have to tell them we were only planting them then. So we came up with the idea of bringing people to the farm.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Families](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/4807296_4_articleinline_54079074980_1d4094ab12_o.jpeg\" "\\"Families")
Families enjoying the Pumpkin Picking Experience at Joe\u2019s Farm in Killeagh during the 2024 season, a sell-out that saw visitors flock to pick their own pumpkins and a myriad of other vegetables : Picture Chani Anderson<\/p>\n
Joe\u2019s Farm Crisps now offer seasonal tours and one of the highlights of the year is always their increasingly popular Pumpkin Picking event that runs throughout the month of October.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The event was inspired by a visit to a pumpkin farm outside Boston during a two week holiday over twenty years ago. Though it took a while to materialise \u2013 the guts of fifteen years \u2013 Sandra feels the market for days out like this is growing, particularly around Halloween.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur events are hands-on farm experiences,\u201d says Sandra.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a route laid out and there are lots of photo opportunities, but I suppose the most important thing is that it\u2019s an educational experience. You pick carrots with the dirt on them, potatoes and pumpkins. It\u2019s very important for us that people pick their pumpkin from where it grows and they can see the vine they grow on. It\u2019s all about showing them where their food comes from. That\u2019s why we started it eight years ago.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
This year looks set to be another busy Halloween for Sandra and her family and she\u2019s advising those who want to visit to book early so they can enjoy the best of what\u2019s on offer.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ll need about two hours at least,\u201d says Burns. \u201cApart from the pumpkin picking, we have our own farm hand cut chips, we have pizza from our friends at Saturday Pizza and my 19-year-old son, Conor, will be making pumpkin pizza. My 17-year-old daughter, Megan, makes gorgeous brownies that she\u2019ll be selling in the farm shop along with other cakes and coffee. So we have loads there, but remember it is a working farm so you need to wear wellies and you\u2019re better off booking for earlier in the month before all the biggest and best pumpkins are gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
For those looking for something closer to the city, Down Syndrome Cork\u2019s Pick a Pumpkin Harvest Festival is a guaranteed winner. The event takes place at their Field of Dreams campus, a three-acre horticultural site on the busy Clash Road in Curaheen.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe provide employment and training for sixty-four adults with Downs Syndrome,\u201d says Debbie Kelleher, Care Coordinator Downs Syndrome Cork.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s unique about our event is that all of our pumpkins are grown from seed on site by the students and the horticultural team together. We sow about one thousand pumpkin seeds. When people come in, it\u2019s a live pumpkin patch.\u201d<\/p>\n
As well as pumpkin trails, live city-dwelling sheep and the chance to chill in their cosy log cabins, visitors can win prizes for guessing the weight of a pumpkin, dance the day away in fancy dress or relax in the campus caf\u00e9. And it\u2019s all for a great cause.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a fun family day,\u201d says Kelleher. \u201cThe kiddies love it and they get a chance to see all our other gardens too. We have a sensory garden, a lavender garden, an orchard and vegetable patch. So there\u2019s lots to see and all the money we raise stays in our charity.\u201d Not even the Divil himself could argue with that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A long time ago, in the wilds of west Kerry, a young man was robbing apples when the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5658,61,1693,60,43],"class_list":["post-60158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-irish-examiner-instagram","tag-ie","tag-insight","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}