Would you do it?

This is a question for you seasoned folks out there.... I love the knowledge base here!

Once upon a time, I had a dream....

A small apple orchard and pumpkin farm, with fall Agritourism happening in the farm each fall. Maybe a few small corn fields, with corn mazes for the kids. A hay ride for all, fresh cider and donuts. Fall times goods market and anything related... a nice spot to take your family, with the country feel. Of course using allis tractors.


But here I am 19 years into an Engineering career.

The job is OK, but I know I would love that even more. I know it wouldn't support me or a family full time. But the dream has always been in the back of my mind.

Question is, at 39 years young... should I even try?

I feel like most days there is not enough hours in the day. Tacking on more workload does not even seem possible at the moment.

If I shifted jobs and did something else,maybe I could have enough time to try this pipe dream.

I can picture myself there, I care about people and families, but don't know how to make it happen. Dad always said, "Can't never did anything " and yes he is right. If I don't try, it won't happen.

Would you go for it? Time is everything.

I guess it depends, how much do like people? I mean people you don’t know? People that are dumber than a bag of broken hammers. Do you have the tolerance for people like that?

Here is the perfect contact for your venture.  Check out or maybe even contact you-tuber Ben Van Roekel aka iowANFarmer.  He & his wife (mostly the wife) did that very thing in Iowa.  They bought land on the edge of I believe Centerville, Iowa and developed it into a pumpkin farm and other similar activities.  They even received a tourist grant from the city.  Haven't seen any recent videos, he's too busy farming.  Since it's mostly a fall attraction I haven't seen any recent videos.  I hope it's still going; they might be heading into their 2nd full year.  Spent considerable $ and a lot of work for all those involved.  I'm sure his experience would reveal a lot.  Good Luck with your dream if you pursue it.

Follow-up, they have website-also, contact molly@papospumkinpatch.com They are on the edge of Centerville, IA and I think the property fronts onto a well-traveled road.

As a slight elder to you and having been in a somewhat similar situation, here's my story/take. As I was growing up on a poultry farm, I was told time and time again "don't grow chickens, to much work not enough pay", "chicken farming is on the way out, don't spend the money". So I decided to go to tech school and became a machinist. I married into a family of chicken farmers and always thought "if there's no future in it how do my in-laws do so well?" After 16 years as a machinist I realized my in-laws knew my daughters better than I did and I wasn't doing that anymore. So when my father-in-law retired I quit my job and took over their farm. A couple of years later we came to a crossroads. It was time to either buy the farm and upgrade or spend money on new. I rolled the dilemma around for a few months and when decision time came I said "I can spend the rest of my life saying "what if" or I can jump and see for myself". We bought 64 acres and built 6 brand new chicken houses to the tune of a little north of $2.5M. Now 5 years later we make enough that Danielle quit teaching 2 years ago and is here with me. It's just me and her to run the farm and it's great. Is it a lot of work? Hell yeah it is. Is it worth it? Absolutely. I spend everyday with my wife and we're making our own way. We only get 1 trip around this rock. I've already got enough "what if's" to last me a lifetime

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My brother and I put ourselves half way through engineering degrees selling pumpkins.

Location location location.

Woodchucks... Have a plan for them! Lol

Agrotourism can work but it's an insurance liability. Be sure to consult on that.

Apples are a huge spray program. Risks your and the family's health.

It's a part time farm gig, keep the day job and farm the nights and weekends.

We always looked forward to July 4th because the pumpkins started running then and no more cultivating nor hoeing!

Sell Indian corn $20/bu instead of $4/bu commodity corn to the elevator.

Sell corn stalks for display, $2/bundle, tack on an additional $12/bu equivalent.

Focus on doing one thing to start. If pumpkins or corn maze then be that one thing. Get great at it. Then add on the other tie ins.

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I worked part time for a retired guy who had a small, pumpkin patch on the edge of town. He had 20 acres I believe but only used I think about 5. He had a play area for kids, sold sold burgers and brats.

Covid shut him down so he retired from that.

Whoever bought I believe is going to build storage units.

No family yet, but here's the thing. Her and I talked about raising our kids with farm exposure. We are convinced that having young ones with the farm experience, including chores and tractors are important for character building. I remember my early days, feeding baby calfs, slopping the hogs with dad. Helping with hay work and square bales, hitching up wagons for grandpa. Doing Silage for the cows in the fall (love the smell of fresh silage) -- doing all these things to us is important. Now, it might not look exactly like it was for me, for our kids. But... just having those essential farm duties and most importantly experiences is a big deal. They need that, I needed it and didn't know it.

As for Saginaw, yeah I'm about 1 hour away. We do tour local orchards here in my area and have been to about 7 different ones in the past. Looks like much work, but starting small as others have said is how I would start. Maybe planting some apple trees first...

Edited by Don(MI) - 9 hours 20 minutes ago at 7:30am