MORTON Ill. (WMBD) — The Village of Morton may look like an average small town in Central Illinois, however, Morton has a huge impact all over the world.
The village earned the title of “Pumpkin Capital of the World” by producing 85% of the world’s canned pumpkin.
John Ackerman owns Ackerman family farms off of US-150. This time of year, he tends to be well-prepared for the pumpkin craze.
“We estimate we harvest by hand 30,000 pumpkins in a little over 2 months. I hire crews, often young men and women we pick them by hand and bring them in and wash them and then display them for people,” said Ackerman.
He said it requires a team of people to harvest those pumpkins but the Morton community is what makes all the hard work worth it.
“The community has been super supportive and we provide as many different kinds of pumpkins we can possibly find,” said Ackerman.
This year the farm has new baby animals, a new design for the corn maze, and a plethora of other freshly grown produce.
