Pingree Grove - At the heart of Income stream for most local Farmers is selling grain by the truckload. Some - though Not Nearly as Many as in Decades Past - sell milk, eggs, beef cattle, hogs and Chickens. For an Increasing number, fees come in for boarding horses and from the over-the-counter sales of sweetcorn, fruit and vegetables.
But for a Growing Number of Local Farmers, Those traditional businesses Have Been joined by Another category - entertainment and tourism. It takes a lot of work, a lot of Employees and A Whole New Willingness Thurs Interact Every Day with people from "the city." But more and more Farms have ENTERED the field called the "agritourism" or "agri-tainment."
The trend is most noticeable in October, "when Several local spreads have Begun Thurs look more like amusement parks please Farms As They beckon Families for" Fall Festivals. "Some Will Follow That up with a Christmas Festival through November and December.
And nowhere is this trend more noticeable note on the Goebbert's Pumpkin Patch Operations in Pingree Grove and South Barrington.
"My family started out with a farm at Arlington Heights and Algqonquin Roads," said co-owner Lloyd Goebbert. "In about 1972, my grandfather Sold That farm and bought the farm along Route 72 (in South Barrington) and started selling Pumpkins. In 1980, They bought this farm "in what is now Pingree Grove, they said. "My wife Terry and I Moved here in 1983 and opened Goebbert's Pumpkin Patch in 1985."
Today, Lloyd and Terry Operate and live on the Pingree Farm. Lloyd's brother, Lee, and his wife operate the South Barrington operation.
Lloyd said his family drifted into the entertainment Operations, a step at a time.
"My dad and grandfather Pumpkins Sold to the Public When They Were Even in Arlington Heights, and we always HAD Sold vegetables retail. The entertainment side just Grew through the years. You must add this and you add on that. "
... And before you know it, your fall festival has camel rides, two giraffes, with a ramp Thurs climb up and look at Them Thurs-eye-eye, a pumpkin-eating robot dinosaur; That a cannon shoots out Pumpkins with compressed air, a haunted house With the theme "Henpeck's Lost Miners", pig races, a cornstalk maze, a straw maze, hay rides, a petting zoo, a cafe, and a gift shop Where You CAN buy everything from apples Thurs Honey Thurs bales of straw to, of course, Pumpkins.
An outfit as elaborate as Goebbert's draws Families from miles away. In Fact, the first visitors this reporter spoke Thurs Recent DURING a visit were two mothers WHO HAD driven out all the way from Chicago.
"I Learned about Goebbert's five years ago," said one, WHO Gave her name only as Jan. "I heard about people WHO HAD visited pumpkin patches out in the countryside. So I Googled "pumpkin patches Illinois' and this place Came up. We liked it and have come back every fall. "
"Rain or shine, we come," agreed Char Corso of nearby Hampshire as the sky opened up with one of this month's few driving rainstorms. "Last year I rode on the camel with two of my grand children. How often do you get a chance to do that? "
But Not everybody will come out to a pumpkin patch in a driving rain, and That Makes his so-short fall season very Vulnerable Thurs weather, Lloyd Goebbert said as they sat in the house Where they lives, just a few feet from the admission- ticket booth.
"Last year was tough. We had 21 days of rain in October. This year we've HAD beautiful October weather, until now, and we've Had a nice attendance. "
This year, Goebberts' fall festival ran Sept. 25 through today. But the Pumpkin Patch has Other outreaches to the public. School classes come to see what a farm is like, a wagon ride into the fields and take home Pumpkins.
DURING the summer and early fall, the Pumpkin Patch sells sweetcorn and vegetables at a road side stand along Route 47 Outsiders CAN come in to pick Their own tomatoes and peppers. People CAN evangelical rent out the top floor of the barn for parties.
Goebbert's Pumpkin Patch is at 42W813 Reinking Road, off Route 47 just north of Route 72 in Pingree Grove. Admission to the Fall Festival, Which ends today, is $ 8 for the weekends, with an Additional fee for "some rides. Call 847-464-5952. Goebbert's Pumpkin Farm is at 1940 W. Higgins Road in South Barrington. Call 847-428-6727. www.pumpkinfarms.com
0 Comments:
Post a Comment