Pumpkin Picking in the Pandemic

U-pick farms — the choose-your-own-fruit-and-vegetable patches that draw droves each summer and fall — have been especially busy this year. Some farms have been so picked over that they’ve had to close their fields for a day or longer to let new fruit ripen.

With apple-and-pumpkin season in full swing, that popularity is continuing, and u-picks have adapted accordingly. Weekend festivals are out. Mask wearing is in. Most locations have introduced ticketed and timed entry, and created prepaid packages for produce and other amenities, like hay rides, to limit face-to-face interaction.

“We’ve had to switch things up a little bit,” said Kyle Holman, the brand manager for Alstede Farms in Chester, N.J. Compared with years past, he said, “things are as good if not better.” Summer picking was up as was interest in the farm’s C.S.A., though the usually busy autumn season has been scaled back. “We can’t have those bigger days,” Mr. Holman said.

For the most part, visitors appear to be adhering to the farms’ precautions, though there are occasional bad apples. In July, for instance, County Line Orchard, a u-pick farm in Hobart, Ind., with an event space was the site of a 270-person unofficial prom that became a Covid-19 superspreader event. (County Line Orchard did not respond to a request for comment.)