Report · Halloween is changing the business of a farm near Toledo. And in its maize maze, something moves at weekends.
VILLALUZ DEL TAJO (Toledo, Spain). For forty years, the Robles family grew pumpkins for cooking: the butternut kind, the one used for soups and purées, which is the most widely planted in Spain. It is sown in May or June, harvested in September and October and sold by weight. “They paid us about twenty cents a kilo, and we were grateful,” recalls Encarna Robles, aged 63.
Three years ago, her daughter Laura suggested something crazy: turning one of their six hectares over to orange Halloween pumpkins, opening the farm at weekends in October and letting families pick their own straight from the plant. In the United States it’s called a pumpkin patch. In Spain it was already working on farms around Madrid and Toledo, with tickets costing between 20 and 23 euros and sessions selling out. One of them, in Ugena, was expecting around 4,000 visitors last season.
Here a ticket costs 21 euros and includes a pumpkin, a roasted corn cob, a trailer ride and a maize maze. Laura takes the money at the gate and drives the tractor. “One of these pumpkins weighs five or six kilos. Sold by weight, I’d get little more than a euro for it,” Encarna calculates. “People aren’t paying for the pumpkin. They’re paying for the afternoon.”
The change isn’t limited to one farm. Spain grows around 4,000 hectares of pumpkins, mostly in the east and in Castilla-La Mancha, and in 2023 its exports hit a record of more than 41 million euros, over double the 2014 figure, according to the exporters’ association FEPEX. One producer in Valencia said he had increased his Halloween crop by 50 to 60% and that, even so, it was never enough. All the same, Halloween pumpkins still take up very little land: most pumpkins end up in the cooking pot.
Not everyone at home was convinced. Grandad Fermín, aged 88, refused to take part. “Pumpkins are for eating, not for carving faces on,” he declared, and since then he has claimed that on Saturdays he goes to the village bar to play cards. What has become famous is the scarecrow in the maze. It wears a flat cap and an unlit pipe in its mouth and, the children swear, it moves: it has winked at some of them and pointed others to the exit when they were lost.
Laura shrugs when we ask her. “It’s made of straw,” she says. Encarna laughs and changes the subject. On Monday, with the farm closed, the scarecrow lies by the barn, without its cap or pipe. At that very time, Fermín sits at the barn door smoking his pipe, and Encarna has to brush, as she does every Monday, a few wisps of straw off his cap, which he says get stuck to it on the bus.
This year, the farm will also open on the night of 31 October, with torches. Encarna has done the sums: next year she’ll plant fewer cooking pumpkins and more orange ones. “We sell fewer kilos and earn more,” she sums up. Grandad has no opinion. But on Saturday afternoon, when the first coachload of families arrives, someone in the middle of the maze will point to the exit again.
Activities
1 Detective Inference
Who is the scarecrow that moves, really? Tick the correct hypothesis.
- a) Laura, Encarna’s daughter, who dresses up to add a bit of mystery to the business she came up with.
- ✓b) Fermín, the grandad, who claims he wants nothing to do with it but dresses up as the scarecrow every weekend.
- c) Nobody: it’s an ordinary straw dummy, and the rest is the imagination of children who get lost in the maize.
- d) A worker hired for the weekends, whom the family keep hidden so the surprise isn’t spoiled.
Which clue proves it? Copy or summarise the clue from the text that proves it.
Correct hypothesis: b). That’s it: the cap and pipe are his, and on Mondays he comes back with straw in his cap while the dummy lies by the barn.
Key clue: “On Monday the dummy lies by the barn without cap or pipe, and wisps of straw have to be brushed off Fermín’s cap.” That’s the key: the dummy loses exactly what the grandad wears, and the grandad comes back with what the dummy is made of.
2 The Loom Order of events
Put the events in order, starting with the earliest. Write the order number (1, 2, 3…) in each box.
- 2 Laura suggests opening one hectare of the farm to families.
- 3 Fermín announces he won’t take part in the business.
- 4 This season’s orange pumpkins are sown, in May or June.
- 1 The Robles family sell cooking pumpkins at about twenty cents a kilo.
- 5 Families pick pumpkins straight from the plant at weekends in October.
- 6 The farm opens at night, with torches, for the first time.
Correct order:
- The Robles family sell cooking pumpkins at about twenty cents a kilo.
- Laura suggests opening one hectare of the farm to families.
- Fermín announces he won’t take part in the business.
- This season’s orange pumpkins are sown, in May or June.
- Families pick pumpkins straight from the plant at weekends in October.
- The farm opens at night, with torches, for the first time.
For forty years they sold by weight. Three years ago, Laura suggested the change and Grandad refused to take part. This season’s pumpkins were sown in May or June, they are picked in October and, to finish, the farm will open at night for the first time on 31 October.
3 The Missing Page Coherence
On the night of 31 October, with torches, what is most likely to happen? Tick only one option.
- a) Fermín spends the night at the village bar playing cards, as he claims he does every weekend.
- b) Encarna sells the orange pumpkins by weight, at twenty cents a kilo, because the 21-euro ticket doesn’t pay.
- ✓c) A child lost in the maze sees the scarecrow in the flat cap point the way out with its hand.
- d) Laura leaves the tractor and the gate to hide in the maze dressed in the scarecrow’s clothes.
Answer: c). It fits everything: the farm opens, and the grandad takes up his post in the maize again.
- a) The bar is his alibi. At weekends he’s actually in the maze, dressed as the scarecrow.
- b) It’s the other way round: “We sell fewer kilos and earn more.” The ticket is worth far more than the pumpkin by weight.
- d) Laura takes the money and drives. And the one who comes back with straw in his cap every Monday is another family member.
4 Spot the Contradiction Literal reading
Three statements don’t fit the report. Put an X next to the 3 statements that don’t fit the text.
- a) The most widely grown pumpkin in Spain is the butternut type, the one used for soups and purées.The report says it’s the most widely planted in Spain.
- ✗b) Pumpkins are sown in September and harvested in May, just before summer.The other way round: sown in May or June and harvested in September and October.
- c) Pumpkin exports hit a record in 2023, with more than 41 million euros.According to FEPEX, more than double the 2014 figure.
- ✗d) Halloween pumpkins now take up most of Spain’s pumpkin fields.They still take up very little land: most end up in the cooking pot.
- e) On the Robles farm, the 21-euro ticket includes a pumpkin to take home.It includes a pumpkin, a roasted corn cob, a trailer ride and the maze.
- ✗f) According to Encarna, she would get more than four euros by weight for a five- or six-kilo pumpkin.She’d get “little more than a euro”. That’s why the ticket pays so much better.
5 The Gallery Visualisation
In the game you choose the illustration that answers this question: “Which picture shows the Robles farm on a Monday, with the farm closed?”. Here, you draw it yourself, with every detail the text gives you.
What should appear: The dummy lies by the barn without cap or pipe, and Fermín wears them at the door: it’s Monday.
Reward drawings that include the details from the text, not artistic skill.
Ending
To read aloud once the answers have been checked.
The scarecrow that moves is Fermín. The grandad who didn’t want to “carve faces on pumpkins” puts on the dummy’s clothes every weekend, stands still in the middle of the maze and guides lost children out. That is why, on Monday, the real scarecrow lies by the barn without the cap and pipe, which are his, and why his cap comes back full of straw. His daughter and granddaughter know and keep his secret.
The figures in the report are real: butternut squash is the most widely grown pumpkin in Spain; the land devoted to pumpkins is around 4,000 hectares, according to the seed industry; exports topped 41 million euros in 2023, according to FEPEX; and the farms near Madrid and Toledo that open their fields in October charge around 20 to 23 euros and sell out. The Robles farm and Villaluz del Tajo are made up.
Encarna’s sum is the key to the change: by weight, a five-kilo pumpkin at twenty cents is worth one euro. With the ticket, the same pumpkin is part of an afternoon that costs 21 euros. That is why they sell fewer kilos and earn more.
Suggested marking
Each activity is worth 2 points (10 in total). In 1, one point for the hypothesis and one for the clue. In 2, give one point if only a couple of events are swapped. In 4, half a point for each correct cross and minus half a point for each true statement crossed out.