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Prairie Gardens & Adventure Farm is thanking the community for helping them get in this year's harvest.
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Prairie Gardens & Adventure Farm is praising the community for its support over the last few months. 

A turbulent year, which saw the farm close in the summer and reopen in late September, threatened to completely destroy this year's harvest. 

Tam Andersen, the owner of Prairie Gardens, says things were looking pretty dire. 

"About three weeks in, we were still closed, Fort Sask was frosted," said Andersen. "We thought 'holy moly we need to get the harvest in' so we just put the call out [on social media]." 

The call for help, which Andersen says was a very hard thing for her to do, worked better than the farm could have imagined. 

"It started as a trickle and then it was a wave," said Andersen. "We had people coming from every corner of the province." 

"People driving down from Fort McMurray, staying in hotels, tourists supporting tourism and coming out and rolling their sleeves up." 

While Prairie Gardens might be most well-known for its pumpkin patch, that is just a small part of their overall harvest. 

Andersen says that their group of volunteers was essential in saving several crops. 

"[They helped us] dig the potatoes, pick the pumpkins, we saved the tomatoes, got the onions in, we got the beets picked, and got the garlic done," said Andersen. "The community support is incredible, and we are so grateful." 

Volunteer work is usually unpaid, but Andersen did find a way to thank everyone for their hard work. 

"We would pay them with the vegetables for the day," said Andersen. 

Prairie Gardens is now fully open for people to experience everything from its corn maze to its world-renowned pumpkin patch, activities, farm animals, greenhouse, and tree orchard. 

If you want to be a part of the community that supports the farm there is one simple thing you can help out with. 

"The best thing to support the farm is to go on our website and buy a ticket to come on out."

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