It started with “Jeff, I have an idea!” Jeff has learned to run away with fingers in his ears when he hears that phrase from me. “Let’s grow pumpkins this year and extend the flower season!” This time he didn’t flee the scene, and said that R Johns Dixon (Raymond and Jimmy’s father) used to grow pumpkins on the farm up through the 1980’s.

We floated the idea by Raymond and soon found ourselves flipping through seed catalogues with Raymond at the kitchen table. We ordered big, little, round, tall, and giant pumpkins in all of the pumpkin colors. We planted in June and hoped the deer wouldn’t eat all of them.

We started to get the word out on socials announcing our first Pumpkin Festival in late October. Vendors started to sign up, we booked an amazing band, The Knuckle Dusters, and booked face painting, bounce houses, magic shows for kids. By early October everything was looking good, tickets were selling (ticket sales cover the cost of tent rentals, etc) we crossed our fingers and hoped for good festival weather.

Thankfully the weather was perfect on event day, and hundreds of families showed up! Some pics below of the very successful day 🎉