(Des Moines, IA) -- Fall is here, and with it comes the apple and pumpkin harvests.
24/7's Midwest Newsroom talked to two Iowa farmers, who both say this year's crop is a good one.
Steve Black is the owner of Center Grove Orchard in Cambridge.
"This year, I did about 16 acres on a field that hasn't had pumpkins in maybe a long time," Black says. "They just had a great crop, so we have a ton of pumpkins."
He says that on his crops' timeline, this year's weather has helped.
"We had a really great Spring where we didn't seem to have too many problems," Black says. "We had good rains in the early Spring, and it's been kind of dry lately and that kind of helps us out a little bit, too."
But that's not the case for all apple and pumpkin farmers. Bryan Etchen is the owner of Iowa Orchard in Urbandale, and he says the heat late in the year threw parts of his harvest off kilter.
"It's kind of funny. Our apple crop was really early this year," Etchen says. "So we were, like, two weeks early. And my pumpkins were, like, two weeks late, which was kind of strange."
In the case of the apples, he didn't want them to get sunburnt in the August heat.
"This year, our honey crisps were so early that we had to pre-pick them because our opening day for pick your own is always Labor Day weekend," Etchen says. "But we had to color pick a bunch of honey crisps a week before that because we were hitting 95 or 96 degrees a couple of days there and we didn't want them to get sunburnt."
In the case of the pumpkins, his are grown near Algona, where it flooded in the Spring. But the pumpkins weren't late because of when they were planted.
"In the heat of the summer, they caught right up so it's not like they were that far behind," Etchen says. "The heat in September just wouldn't allow them to turn orange. Then all of a sudden they turned orange overnight one night."
Both owners say the crops and the entertainment sides of their businesses are prepared to serve families as fall rolls on.
"I can't really say it's one thing or another [that draws people out]," Black says. "When you put it all together, every little piece adds a lot."
And Etchen says while the fall has been warm so far, he's expecting business to boom with the upcoming change in weather.
"I think customers respond to [cool weather]," Etchen says. "The cooler air. They go 'oh, it's time for apples.' It drops back down next week, and I expect a massive last three weeks of October before Halloween."