It's pumpkin season across Michigan, but nowhere more so than in the little hamlet of Shepherd, located just minutes south of Mt. Pleasant.
Kent Roth has owned The Shepherd Bar for about thirty years, and this popular spot is both a local favorite, and a destination all on its own. Each Halloween, Kent and a few friends, carve a couple of pumpkins and put them on display behind the bar out in front of Kent's house. Then they stick a bigger pumpkin out on the corner on Wright Avenue, so you know right where to turn.
This might sound much like your house, but I assure you, it's not.
The reality is that Kent and his huge crew of volunteer carvers are going for their own personal (and possibly world?) record of carved and lighted pumpkins this season. The plan is to carve 2,000 pumpkins. Now, I also first read that number as two hundred. TWO THOUSAND PUMPKINS will be lit and on display through Halloween, truly lighting up this little village. And yes, there is a pumpkin out on Wright, but it's a two hundred and fifty pound monster, so you'll be sure to see it.
The pumpkin carving gets started on Saturday October 26 at 9 am, rain or shine, and should be completed by 4 pm. Everyone is welcome to come help, and there will even be tasty treats for the volunteers, including donuts, apple cider, hot chocolate, BBQ pork sandwiches, and cheesy hash brown potatoes. And who doesn't love cheesy hash brown potatoes??
They've been carving the pumpkins for ten years now, after Roth said to his kids "let's carve like fifty pumpkins and put them on display." So they did, and then the next year they did it again, but doubled the number of pumpkins. They doubled and doubled and one year did 1700. Then dropped to a more "manageable" thousand pumpkins during Covid. That's manageable?
"That's pretty easy, you can get through a thousand pumpkins in about an hour," Roth said calmly.
The secret to his speed is a special auger tool he's put together to gut the pumpkins quickly, it's essentially a motorized old-fashioned egg beater that just rips through squash flesh like a springtime tornado. "It's like an egg beater on steroids," Roth said.
The real secret is his host of friends, family, community members, and pumpkin enthusiasts who show up to help carve each year. "It started out with just my immediate family, And when it grew, we just couldn't do it. So we invited the general public, anybody who wanted to, friends, family to stop by," Roth explained.
The pumpkin carving gets started on Saturday October 26 at 9 am, rain or shine. Everyone is welcome to come help, and there will even be free tasty treats for the volunteers, including donuts, apple cider, hot chocolate, BBQ pork sandwiches, and cheesy hash brown potatoes. And who doesn't love cheesy hash brown potatoes??
Now, it might be worth it just to go to Shepherd on Saturday for that food, because Kent is cooking up good things at The Shepherd Bar everyday. Pizza is one speciality, and Kent believes the secret is his homemade dough. But the sandwich that built the bar? That's the hoagie sandwich.
"It was on the menu thirty years ago, and it's on the menu now. The steak hoagie and the chicken hoagie are staples. We've kept them on with every menu change.
I hate a skimpy hoagie, and that steak one was anything but. A sturdy yet soft brioche bun formed the base, which is then loaded with some seriously solid shaved ribeye steak, earthy mushrooms and sweet onions, and then draped in a very generous amount of cheeses. I appreciated the double dose of both Swiss and American goodness. Gonzo got their famous Maple Cheddar Bacon Burger, a dreamboat of a bite, with just a hint of sweetness from that famous, locally harvested maple syrup that Shepherd is known for.
We also have to give a shout-out to our waitress, the fantastic Kathy Dickman, who just oozes personality and hospitality, running around and running the show with biggest smile on her face and a laugh on her lips. "Oh yeah, she's an icon here," said Kent. Clearly. If you'd like to meet Kathy, she'll probably be there on Saturday. "She doesn't really carve too many pumpkins though," Roth said with a laugh.
"The neighbors really love me this time of year," Roth said. "The whole neighborhood really has an orange glow."
Here's a link to our recent podcast from the Mt. Pleasant area, we recorded at The Shepherd Bar.
Plan your trip and Meet Mt. Pleasant at https://meetmtp.com/.
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