Pumpking farming as a spare time project was perfect for us for several years on Island Meadow Farm.

We wanted to do agribusiness part time, yet also wanted some measure of privacy while we were a family with young kids. I knew of and wrote about many successful micro eco-farms that are succeeding in so many different ways. Some have customers come to their farms daily. Others just have the occasional visitors.

On our farm, produce was grown and taken into town restaurants for the most part, rather than having many customers come to the property on a regular basis. In looking for a spare-time income our kids could get involved with as well as well as a way to generate word-of-mouth good will promotion for Island Meadow Farm, our once-a-year on-farm October Harvest Festival proved to be a low-investment and highly successful spare-time venture that could grow into a full-scale business in the future if we chose.

In spite of nearby supermarkets that were loaded with pumpkins and other harvest-time ornamentals for sale, people came from all directions to purchase from our farm instead. And the surplus pumpkins were sold the next day from our country road. Turns out, we were supplying something along with the pumpkins that supermarkets can't offer, which was an authentic trip to the country. "Visiting the country," it seems, was almost a product of its own.

Preparing and planting the patch

Each fall, a new patch about the size of a large backyard was rototilled with our old tiller, incorporating two ingredients pumpkins love, especially when being grown in our Pacific Northwest clay: dolomite lime and manure from our kids' ponies and goats, with a little kelp tossed in. The patch was protected during the winter with locally collected mulch (old lawn clippings, straw, leaves and weeds removed from our local lake and allowed to be dumped on our property).

In April, the kids pushed big pointed seeds into potting soil-filled used paper cups collected from charity gatherings. The cups were put on top of the refrigerator for bottom heat at first, and then in sunny windowsills or under a couple of cheap fluorescent lights propped on top of cinder blocks. Soon after sprouting they were taken outside and put under a cold frame made from bales of hay anchoring clear plastic. About May, the patch was hoed into hills to create circular raised beds for the transplants soon to come. Once planted, the pumpkins had good rich loose soil and quenching from a watering can when there wasn't enough rain, and they practically grew themselves

Offering a large variety, and creating the fun of the hunt

In winter, we had chosen a collection of pumpkin and autumn ornamental seeds for our pumpkin farming venture. We found the very best success formula was a combination of the traditional jack-o-lantern that most would expect, as well as some fun surprises: heirloom and specialty pumpkins (such as the Cinderella pumpkin and all-white pumpkins); the popular mini-sized pumpkins, a few pie pumpkins, many different ornamental gourds, and miniature ornamental corn.

When they all grew together creating a patchwork quilt of sorts, children and their parents went wild with the 'hunt' in the pumpkin patch. Like a treasure hunt, they found themselves loading up with irresistible autumn decorations, perhaps drawing out their old 'hunting and gathering' instincts. The search, and satisfaction from the ultimate find, made this day in the country especially entertaining and memorable for our customers.

Other offerings

Pumpkin farming meant attracting customers with farm experiences. We had ponies, ducks, geese, chickens and pigmy goats on the farm. So we groomed the ponies for petting, and spiffed up the pens of the other animals so customers could see farm animals close up.

I've known other small pumpkin patch owners to offer small cups of apple cider for a small fee (lemonade-stand style), a craft area for learning to decorate gourds and paint pumpkins, an autumn photo booth, and a table of other homemade items for sale.

Depending on your local food selling and handling laws, baked goods, eggs, and certain preserves are sometimes allowed to be sold small scale with less restrictions as long as the income is under a specified amount (check with your local laws, they are different in different locations, and change often). If it's found that a certified kitchen is legally needed to sell food items, sometimes a local church or school will barter or rent out their certified kitchen for a canning, preserving or baking session for your one-time sale.

Promoting and preparing for the day

Our children were allowed to hand out fliers at their local elementary school in trade for one of its teachers getting to bring their kids to the farm for a separate field trip in spring. Also, fliers were put up anywhere bulletin boards allowed them. Other than the money needed for copies, no other advertising was paid for.

On the chosen harvest day weekend (usually about the second weekend in October), our kids laid a smooth wooden board over two bales of hay about five feet apart for their cashier's table and turned over two buckets for seats. Quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies were divided into a metal cupcake holder for giving out change that would be needed, and signs were drawn up to show prices. We adults built and monitored a small bon fire and the pony petting area… and then we waited.

People showed up from the moment we stated we'd be 'open' (usually around 10 a.m.) to the official end of the day. Most of the crop was successfully sold during the weekend harvest festival. The kids were very happy with their pumpkin farming success as they divided the money, and so were their customers. One year when the festival ended, the kids gleaned all remaining pumpkins and ornamentals, and filled a little farm wagon we attached to the back of an old riding lawnmower that had been converted to a hauling tractor. They drove the wagon down a ways from our farm where there was busier traffic, and sold the remaining pumpkins right out of the wagon. Seeing bright orange pumpkins in a farm wagon on a rural road just seemed to have some sort of appeal to passersby.

Unexpected farm promotion bonuses.

Following our harvest festival, we continued to get phone calls and inquiries about our other products. People wanted to know if we had more pie pumpkins for sale. They asked if they could hire us to bring our ponies for birthday parties and wondered what other produce we had for sale during the year. Besides being a very simple family-friendly spare time income, the pumpkin patch did become the generator of word-of-mouth promotion. It also served as valuable market research when visitors told us what they liked and what they'd enjoy more of. Each year, we had to do less and less promotion, as people from the year before remembered and wanted to return.

Fun crops for pumpkin farming:

Here are a few fun crops to experiment with. All are available from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and possibly others: www.rareseeds.com

• Extra Long-Handled Dipper gourd: A dipper gourd with a handle up to 3 feet long. It can be helpful to have a cured one nearby with water for dipping, so kids can see the final result.
  
  
• Cassabanana: This is more of a melon. It needs a long season like pumpkins and can be a great find for anyone hunting through the pumpkin patch. It has long, flaming red fruits (about 2 feet). It's still experimental as far as ripening in North America and Europe, so it's suggested you start them indoors and give them plenty of time to grow.
  
  
• Dancing or Spinning gourds: 2-inch gourds that kids once played with long ago in the olden days. They can be spun like a top. Great for an historical tie-in for teachers and their classrooms touring the farm.

Pumpkin painting templates:

Here's a Clickbank affiliate for downloadable templates for painting pumpkins in whimsical designs. Painted pumpkins set out on display attract visitors to your farm and spread word-of-mouth promotion. Depending on your community, there may be enough customers who will pay higher prices for carefully painted pumpkins, but some communities may have more people looking for a bargain who prefer to paint their own. Either way, a pumpkin painting booth can be very popular for pumpkin farming.

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Please also see our e-Magazine which has posts on etching pumpkins and other methods to aid fall harvest income.