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A Turning Point

This month's Feature Destination:
Renyer's Pumpkin Farm

October 2005

When you ask Brenda Renyer how long they’ve operated a pumpkin patch, she hesitates.

“Well, I guess we’ve been in this business for six years. But I consider this to be our second year. I mean our second real year. That’s when we first went to NAFDMA.”

NAFDMA is the North American Farmers’ Direct Marketing Association, and Doug and Brenda Renyer mark attending the association’s national convention as a turning point in their agritourism business.

“The first four years, we planted some pumpkins and thought that maybe someone would come by and buy them,” she says. That’s when they started Renyer's Pumpkin Farm in Wetmore, Kansas.

Brenda says she grew up going to craft shows with her mom, and originally they opened up the farm one week a year to visitors, and sold her craft items, and pumpkins. She had been a teacher, and this seemed like a way that she could stay home with her son Clay, yet still realize a little income.

So what was that turning point?

“The NAFDMA convention begins with pre-conference bus tours,” Brenda explains. “For three days, you are traveling with at least 50 other agritourism people, and going to all sorts of successful farms. Everyone is talking about what works, and what doesn’t, and you get to see how it can really be done.

“We saw farms where they converted old grain bins into play areas, and used the history of the farm to educate visitors…all sorts of things that you can incorporate without spending a lot of money- and yet make it educational and fun.”

“And then in the conference itself, we learned how to really make it all work,” Brenda recalls. “I learned all sorts of things from Jane- I’m still trying to get it all done!” (Our own Jane Eckert, the Kansas Agritourism consultant, is frequently one of the several workshop presenters. Attendees can choose from several different tracts, based on their interests and experience.)

“You can walk around our farm and see all sorts of things we learned at NAFDMA. We quit hiding the old hand-dug well, the storm cellar, and the building that had once been a blacksmith shop servicing the riders in the Pony Express. People want to see and learn about these things. That’s what we learned.”

They also converted an old grain bin into a play area, with a few inches of corn kernels for the children to play in. And they added a playground area, with a tree house and tube slide, along with a number of other tube slides on a climbing hill where lots of boys and girls can race back to the top.

A young-children’s hay maze is actually under roof. Using about 200 bales, they created a fun room of tunnels and paths for 3 to 6 year-olds inside what used to be a welding shop.

Outside, this year’s corn maze promotes their website, but Brenda says one of the things they learned in the workshop is to look for sponsors. They hope next year’s maze will promote a business partner, someone sharing the expense of planting and maintaining the maze.

Brenda is very enthusiastic about this year’s plan to track all of their sales.

“This will be the first year that we will be tracking everything-

  • How many people come to the farm
  • How many just want crafts or pumpkins, and don’t pay admission
  • How many buy food, what they buy, and how much they spend
  • How many buy crafts, pumpkins, gourds and bales
  • How they heard about the farm, etc.”

The Renyers currently plant about 9 acres in pumpkins and gourds, and cash rent the remainder of their 75 acres.

At Renyer’s Pumpkin Farm, visitors pay a $5 admission fee. This includes access to the corn maze, the hay maze, tube slides, the playground, and a hayride through the pumpkin patch. School tours pay $4 per child, which includes a free small pumpkin. This year, the farm also added a $6 Flashlight Maze on weekends, though as of this writing, it’s been rained out.

Brenda makes and sells very attractive and unique gifts, often using old farm window screens and other materials to give her crafts a special quality. They also sell bales of cornstalks, rather than hay, which meet with great enthusiasm.

“For now, the food service consists of hot dogs, chips, pop, and pumpkin sugar cookies, but who knows what we’ll add next,” she says.

Actually, they are already planning next year, another thing they learned at NAFDMA. She says they plan to convert a small barn into a tots tractor pedal ride, and may add some pigmy goats as an fun attraction for families.

“Next year, I’m also going to do a better job of publicity and promotions,” Brenda admonishes herself. “I learned so much about it in the workshop, and from the books I bought. But I didn’t get it all done this year.

“We do have road signs on the major highways, and I handed out flyers at the craft shows the last several weeks, and we have the website. Clay (age 11) recorded some ads for the local radio stations. And we’ve had a couple of stories in the papers. Still- I’m going to do better next year!”

When asked whether they would be returning to NAFDMA this year, Brenda says they’ve gone the last two years, and “certainly will never be able to do all the things we’ve already learned…

“…but, we are hoping to win one of the Kansas scholarships this year. We’d sure like to go back!”

For more about Renyer's Pumpkin Patch, visit www.renyerspumpkinfarm.com.