It Is Almost That Time....

It is almost that time of year when we think we are going to go CRaZy!!!  There is so much work to be done on the farm to get ready for the fall season.  We are setting up displays, fixing up play area, setting up the store, picking pumpkins, making corn bundles, making the animal pens ready, and baking up a mountain of cookies.  If that was all it wouldn't be too bad, but it is also time for wheat to be drilled (planted, drilled is a fancy farmer word) and corn to be picked (another farmer jargon, means harvested).  Everyone is working 15-18 hour days just to get it all done.  Makes for some cranky farmers sometimes.  BUT, we will prevail, it will get done if the good Lord intends us to do it.  Often, it is so easy this time of year to completely loose focus of that and allow our blessings to be completely overshadowed by our work and forget what our purpose is.  We set a goal 8 years ago to make this a family friendly destination that is Halloween-Free.  No spook houses, scary monsters, vampires, ghost stories, or zombies around here (well unless you count the crew on some of our busy days).  What you do get is the chance to skip on some hay bales, race some duckies, grunt at some piggies, swing on a tire swing, bite into the best sugar cookie around, hunt for the biggest orange pumpkin in the field, all with your family.  No gameboys, ipods, remotes or cell phones needed.  Just your family enjoying a carefree day on the farm.  The best reward for us at the end of the day?  Hearing the cries of kids, "But we don't want to go hhhhoooommmmeeee!!!"  That means to us, that they had FUN.  And fun makes memories that they will carry with them for years to come. 

Sneek Peek

Here is a sneek peek at our new logo this year!  I am going to try and post some sneek peeks over the next couple weeks.

Baby Pumpkins

Like many at home gardeners this summer, we have had some struggles this year with the pumpkins.  Some of the pumpkins were planted 3 times because heavy rains washed them out.  So we have pumpkins that are all ages in the patch.  The nice thing about this will be they will be spaced out throughout the entire season.  This nice cooler weather has been very nice for the pumpkins, like me they just don't like super hot temperatures!  Here are some pictures of the baby pumpkins that are growing. 

Quick biology lesson:  Check out the small dried out bloom on end of baby pumpkin.  That is the female flower that after it was pollinated, formed the fruit.

These are baby gourds. 

Teenage pumpkin. 

Harvest Farm & Pumpkin Patch: Cattle, Wheat, and Pumpkins?

Harvest Farm & Pumpkin Patch: Cattle, Wheat, and Pumpkins?: "I thought some of you might be interested in our story of how we started the pumpkin patch. It all started about 13 years ago when my son G..."

Cattle, Wheat, and Pumpkins?

I thought some of you might be interested in our story of how we started the pumpkin patch.  It all started about 13 years ago when my son Garrett and I visited some family that lived in Nebraska at the time.  They took us to a place called Vala's Pumpkin Patch near Omaha.  It has to be hands down one of the best pumpkin patches in the nation!  I came home to my husband and said, "honey we should start a pumpkin patch!  They took an old farm like ours and turned it into this huge deal.  We could do that here!"  He looked at me like I had lost my mind, and his reply was, "we grow wheat and cattle, NOT PUMPKINS".  End of story for a couple of years, I took him to see Vala's and he admitted it was a very fun and cool place but still held firm, "we grow wheat and cattle, NOT PUMPKINS".  So I gave up on the idea........then eight years ago we were on vacation in Colorado, the wheat price is the the same price his grandpa was getting 50 years ago.  Eric turns to me and says, "you know, maybe we should try growing some pumpkins".   I thought he had lost his mind or the altitude had affected his brain!  We came home and asked the rest of the family if they would like to help and here we are 8 years later getting ready to open for our 7th season.  It is more work, time, money, frustration, sleepless nights, sweat, and (did I mention work?) than we ever dreamed it would be!  But when things are going well and you get to hear the laughter of adults and children having a wonderful, fun day on the farm it is worth it all. 

New Season, New Blog

It is almost time for the 2010 season of Harvest Farm & Pumpkin Patch! We thought it might be fun for our customers to be able to follow everyday events here at the farm as we get ready and go thru the season. So here is our new blog! Please stop in often and say hello. I am going to try to post photos, events, recipes and more.