Papa Dave Pearce and his passion for produce

BISMARCK, N.D. ( KXNET ) — He started in Cleveland, Ohio. Then, in 1968 he and his family moved to North Dakota and that’s when his father began farming near Minot.

Although he doesn’t have kids of his own, he’s grown a very large family in North Dakota over the years and he’s known as everyone’s Papa.

Right out of high school, Dave Pearce began a small custom combining business, that would pay for his college. During the summer of 1977, in his college years at NDSU studying agriculture, Pearce took part in an exchange program to the Soviet Union. That same year, Pearce’s father would suffer a heart attack, and that’s when his dad sold his farm near Minot, and bought land north of Bismarck.

“Dad died in car accident in 1979, so it was really my mother and I that first put together what was then ‘Papa’s Greenhouse,'” shared Dave Pearce, Owner and core member of Papa’s Pumpkin Patch.

For around 15 years, alongside his mother and sister, Papa’s Greenhouse would sell tomatoes and cucumbers. In 1983, the pumpkins would pop into the picture and thus Papa’s Pumpkin Patch was born. Pearce said that his father always wanted him to grow produce on the land he bought.

That’s exactly what Papa’s Pumpkin Patch has done. Over the years, the patch has grown to be one of the most beloved pumpkin patches in the U.S. In fact, the Travel Channel has named it one of the top 10 in the United States.

Contracting with other farmers around the state, pumpkins are shipped to the farm on pallets.
Pearce said that they expect around 50,000 to 60,000 visitors every season looking for the perfect pumpkin.

“You have those conversations about what is the child going to do with their future and their life, you know, and so dad and it didn’t matter how it started, the end would be, ‘Well I think you ought to be a politician and I think you ought to grow tomatoes in a greenhouse.’ Another thing was that he always wanted this land to be privately owned and publicly shared,” said Pearce.

“500,000 pounds, half a million pounds, that’s a lot of pumpkin,” exclaimed Pearce.

Pearce and his wife married later in life, and don’t have children of their own. But, he’s known as everyone’s Papa at the patch whether he’s fixing the swings, or telling the time, everyone can count on Papa at the patch.

It’s no surprise that the “core team” at Papa’s is working year-round to get ready for the next patch season. However, picking pumpkins and providing a pleasant place for kids isn’t all Pearce does. In the off-season, Pearce teaches students in Uganda, Africa how to compost and grow produce through an organization called Roots Africa.

“We’re teaching them about genetics and new seed, but even their own open-pollinated seed. How do we better prepare? How do we get better biological control and weed control. What can we do to increase and improve the yields,” said Pearce as he explained what he teaches to his students.

However, over the years of growing the patch, life would begin to look different for Pearce and the family at the patch. In 2014, Pearce’s mother died, and in 2019, his sister, Tracy, died from cancer, leaving Pearce to continue his family’s legacy, but not alone.

His brother-in-law, Corey Finneman, and his family continue to help the pumpkin patch grow.

When asked what it meant for him to be a lasting legacy for his family, Papa Pearce responded, “I think, we all yearn to leave a legacy. What really matters is that a person has a purpose and I think another word for the purpose is to leave a legacy…to do something that matters and makes a difference or that leaves a marker. Or, maybe in a more real-life way, something that adds value for others and I know without question that this place has done that.”

Papa Pearce is a popular pleasant person with a purpose to be a professor of produce and planter of pumpkins, and that’s why he’s someone you should know.

Papa’s Pumpkin Patch is open for the season from noon to 7 every day until October 19th, weather permitting.

If you think there’s someone we should know like Papa Pearce, fill out our nomination form .

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