Schumaker’s adds pumpkin and farm experience fun for visitors
Schumaker Farms has been family owned since 1806. Chad and Leigha Schumaker have joined his mother and father Wendy and Jim Schumaker in the family business and created many pumpkin themed fun activities for visitors. Josie Sellers | Beacon
WEST LAFAYETTE – An old tradition is coming back to Schumaker Farms, but it’s going to be bigger and better.
Pumpkin season is here and visitors to Schumaker’s can pick their favorite one out at the market or travel back to the pumpkin patch on their own to pluck it right off the vine. Free hayrides to the pumpkin patch will be available on Saturdays and Sundays, weather permitting and through Oct. 22, (except during the Coshocton County Fair) from noon to 4 p.m. or you can schedule a ride for your group or school. Group wiener roasts also are available.
“We did school tours to the pumpkin patch for a long time, but had a drought a while back and lost a lot of our pumpkins,” said Wendy Schumaker. “Last year we weren’t even open in October. We closed at the end of September.”
Jim Schumaker added that it’s been about five years since they had the pumpkin activities, but now that their son Chad and his wife Leigha are actively involved in the farm they’ve decided to bring the pumpkin fun back.
“We are here now so we thought why not do it,” Chad said. “Before we were out working other jobs.”
Visitors to the market will find pumpkins, gourds, mums and other fall decorations for sale, along with produce and homemade cookies. Before or after making their purchase they can enjoy a straw maze, corn box, petting zoo and more.
Schumaker Farms is located at 52441 Country Road 16 and is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays. For more information, call 740-622-8915 or visit www.schumakerfarms.com.
Schumaker Farms has been family owned since 1806 and was designated a Bicentennial Farm by the Ohio State Agriculture Department. The seventh generation of the family is now living on and working the farm, which still raises sweet corn, field corn, soybeans and pumpkins.
Wendy and Jim are excited to see Chad and Leigha play a bigger role in the farm as they start to take small steps back from it.
“We want to see it continue with them because we put a lot of work into it,” Jim said.
Chad said he enjoys the farming aspect of the business, which doesn’t surprise Wendy.
“Once a farmer, always a farmer,” she said. “We are still going to continue to be part of the business with him and Leigha, but eventually they will have it all.”
Category: Business
