Highlighting Local Businesses: Plumper Pumpkin Patch and Tree Farm
By Suzanne Perra
I was fortunate to interview Jim Kessinger (co-owner) and April Latta (manager) on the opening day of the Sunflower Maze. A little store is set up near the Sunflower Maze with tables at which to sit down and enjoy snacks. There are farm animals nearby and a small donkey wandering around. There are 25 lb. Hermiston watermelons for sale, just picked up from Hermiston the same morning. At the back of the farm, there is a magnificent view of the valley.
Plumper Pumpkin is an old school 1950’s style farm. It has 65 acres with a big variety of crops while most farms these days just have one or two. There is no irrigation and just a small well. Lots of organic material and special tilling techniques produce robust crops. Farm animals that are bred include pigs, sheep, goats and rabbits. The farm has 3 year-round full-time employees.
Plumper Pumpkin began when Jim and Peggy Kessinger bought the farm in 1993 while both were working in tech jobs at Intel. Jim quit working at Intel in 1997 and started farming in 1998. They made $3,000 off of 1 acre of pumpkins their first year. The first field trip happened the next fall when a teacher of one of their children asked to bring the whole class to the farm. Peggy quit working at Intel in 1999. At the time they had 2 children. In 2000, they adopted 3 more children who needed a home, for a total of five children between the ages of 3 and 9. Starting from scratch, they lost money for a few years and now they make some money to help with expenses. It is a labor of love. Jim likes growing plants and the animals. Each spring brings a new year and a clean slate.
Pre Covid-19
In a typical year, schools come to the farm in spring and kids plant pumpkin seeds. The name of each school is put on their row. Each child receives a tomato start to plant at home. In the fall, the students return and find their row, now miraculously full of bright orange pumpkins. Each child picks a sugar pie pumpkin to bring home. I imagine that some are carved and proudly displayed while others are turned into pumpkin pies. Field trips fill the weekdays and the children come back on weekends with their entire families. With the winter season comes another great adventure of cutting a Christmas Tree. Visitors keep warm at the firepit, feed the animals and visit the store. Throughout the year, fresh farm meat and eggs, and honey are sold seasonally.
Impact of Covid-19
This year is a little different. No field trips in the spring and now no field trips in the fall. A state of emergency declared in March due to Covid-19 is still in force for Multnomah County. That is a loss of 3,000 visitors for spring field trips, 8,000 visitors for fall field trips, 2,000 corporate visitors, and 500 kids at birthday parties. On a Thursday in May, the team at Plumper came up with the idea of the Donut Safari. The farm opened the following Friday for the first Donut Safari. “People were ready to get out of the house in a safe way. It was so great to give families something to do and see the smiles,” said Jim. “It’s not often you get to be a part of something like that. It was one great day and people kept coming, asking for more and more days. It was a simple drive thru and look at the animals. Pumpkin donuts were available and the tomato plants meant for the kids that attended the spring field trip were all sold,” he said. With creativity and a stroke of luck the Donut Safari brought in as much money as the spring field trips.
At the Sunflower Maze, rows and rows of sunflowers burst into bloom: miniature sunflowers, followed by the wild sunflowers, followed by several other types of sunflowers. Visits are pre-scheduled throughout the day and social distancing is maintained. Visitors used sanitized clippers to cut any sunflowers they chose to create a beautiful bouquet with traditional yellow, cream, and black varieties. This is the second year for the Sunflower Maze at Plumper Pumpkin and is becoming another Plumper tradition.
Jim hoped for a normal October, but unfortunately it’s not. They have been thinking about what to do. There will still be pumpkins, the store, animals with babies coming, caramel apples, kettle corn, apple and pumpkin cannons and a 2-acre corn maze. It will be a safe place to come. They will have farm walking loops defined for folks to tour the farm. Online tickets will limit the number of people on the farm. The corn maze will have a one-way trail with social distancing.
So, this fall they will go back to their roots – like it was 10 years ago. Families will come to the farm, pick a pumpkin, have a snack, and enjoy the surroundings. U-pick farms are doing better than ever because they provide a safe outdoor venue for people. In one week, they heard that OregonLive, Country Growers and Skyline Ridge Neighbors wanted to write articles about the farm. October revenue will be way off with the loss of field trips, but hopefully they will sell more pumpkins than ever before.
Fun Farm Tour
During my visit to the farm, I saw many sites and heard many stories. When you visit, see if you can spot the following landmarks and animals:
Railroad Sign: Find the railroad sign at the edge of the pumpkin field. In 1910, Ferdinand Kruger (father of 11 children and founder of the farm) was approached to put an underground train tunnel 200 feet under the property. He requested free electricity for life, transportation, shipping to and from Portland, and a spring for the farm’s water. A deal was struck. In 1949, he was given $350 to end the free electricity agreement. The spring was used until 1997, when a new well was drilled. The tunnel is still operated by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad.
View of Intel Building and Cranes: On the top of the property, you can view Intel and the cranes off to the right and a beautiful view of the valley and coast range.
Solar Panels: A year ago, a tornado hit the farm. TV channels came for a week to cover the story. The tornado tore up solar panels and shredded a large outdoor tent. Pumpkins picked up by the tornado were thrown everywhere. The corn plants formed a laid out circular pattern where the tornado touched down. Eventually everything was cleaned up and the corn maze took place as usual. The solar panels were rebuilt last year in a new location about 100 feet away.
Windmill: The 40-foot windmill is hard to miss. Each year Jim adds something new and unexpected; last year was the hobbit house and this year it is the windmill. Jim grew up in Kansas. “A windmill looks nice on a farm,” he said.
Houdini: Houdini is a llama who is an escape artist. Jim and Peggy found Houdini running loose with the elk for a year. Jim said that it took more than half a dozen people to catch him. “Once we got him home, he jumped over the top of the pen. He was then placed in a larger area in the upper yard and he jumped the fence again,” he said. Jim finally gave up on him. A few days later, Houdini jumped back in and has been there ever since. “He had become lonely and realized that he was fed here,” said Jim. He never ran away again.
Sam: Sam is a Pot Belly pig. Have you heard the expression “When pigs fly”? Some friends found Sam in Texas and then flew him back to Portland. After their family grew, they donated Sam to the farm as a pet. The owner still visits Sam every year
Go to plumperpumpkins.com or Like on Facebook to sign up and get the latest information.
(RR 10/20)
I was fortunate to interview Jim Kessinger (co-owner) and April Latta (manager) on the opening day of the Sunflower Maze. A little store is set up near the Sunflower Maze with tables at which to sit down and enjoy snacks. There are farm animals nearby and a small donkey wandering around. There are 25 lb. Hermiston watermelons for sale, just picked up from Hermiston the same morning. At the back of the farm, there is a magnificent view of the valley.
Plumper Pumpkin is an old school 1950’s style farm. It has 65 acres with a big variety of crops while most farms these days just have one or two. There is no irrigation and just a small well. Lots of organic material and special tilling techniques produce robust crops. Farm animals that are bred include pigs, sheep, goats and rabbits. The farm has 3 year-round full-time employees.
Plumper Pumpkin began when Jim and Peggy Kessinger bought the farm in 1993 while both were working in tech jobs at Intel. Jim quit working at Intel in 1997 and started farming in 1998. They made $3,000 off of 1 acre of pumpkins their first year. The first field trip happened the next fall when a teacher of one of their children asked to bring the whole class to the farm. Peggy quit working at Intel in 1999. At the time they had 2 children. In 2000, they adopted 3 more children who needed a home, for a total of five children between the ages of 3 and 9. Starting from scratch, they lost money for a few years and now they make some money to help with expenses. It is a labor of love. Jim likes growing plants and the animals. Each spring brings a new year and a clean slate.
Pre Covid-19
In a typical year, schools come to the farm in spring and kids plant pumpkin seeds. The name of each school is put on their row. Each child receives a tomato start to plant at home. In the fall, the students return and find their row, now miraculously full of bright orange pumpkins. Each child picks a sugar pie pumpkin to bring home. I imagine that some are carved and proudly displayed while others are turned into pumpkin pies. Field trips fill the weekdays and the children come back on weekends with their entire families. With the winter season comes another great adventure of cutting a Christmas Tree. Visitors keep warm at the firepit, feed the animals and visit the store. Throughout the year, fresh farm meat and eggs, and honey are sold seasonally.
Impact of Covid-19
This year is a little different. No field trips in the spring and now no field trips in the fall. A state of emergency declared in March due to Covid-19 is still in force for Multnomah County. That is a loss of 3,000 visitors for spring field trips, 8,000 visitors for fall field trips, 2,000 corporate visitors, and 500 kids at birthday parties. On a Thursday in May, the team at Plumper came up with the idea of the Donut Safari. The farm opened the following Friday for the first Donut Safari. “People were ready to get out of the house in a safe way. It was so great to give families something to do and see the smiles,” said Jim. “It’s not often you get to be a part of something like that. It was one great day and people kept coming, asking for more and more days. It was a simple drive thru and look at the animals. Pumpkin donuts were available and the tomato plants meant for the kids that attended the spring field trip were all sold,” he said. With creativity and a stroke of luck the Donut Safari brought in as much money as the spring field trips.
At the Sunflower Maze, rows and rows of sunflowers burst into bloom: miniature sunflowers, followed by the wild sunflowers, followed by several other types of sunflowers. Visits are pre-scheduled throughout the day and social distancing is maintained. Visitors used sanitized clippers to cut any sunflowers they chose to create a beautiful bouquet with traditional yellow, cream, and black varieties. This is the second year for the Sunflower Maze at Plumper Pumpkin and is becoming another Plumper tradition.
Jim hoped for a normal October, but unfortunately it’s not. They have been thinking about what to do. There will still be pumpkins, the store, animals with babies coming, caramel apples, kettle corn, apple and pumpkin cannons and a 2-acre corn maze. It will be a safe place to come. They will have farm walking loops defined for folks to tour the farm. Online tickets will limit the number of people on the farm. The corn maze will have a one-way trail with social distancing.
So, this fall they will go back to their roots – like it was 10 years ago. Families will come to the farm, pick a pumpkin, have a snack, and enjoy the surroundings. U-pick farms are doing better than ever because they provide a safe outdoor venue for people. In one week, they heard that OregonLive, Country Growers and Skyline Ridge Neighbors wanted to write articles about the farm. October revenue will be way off with the loss of field trips, but hopefully they will sell more pumpkins than ever before.
Fun Farm Tour
During my visit to the farm, I saw many sites and heard many stories. When you visit, see if you can spot the following landmarks and animals:
Railroad Sign: Find the railroad sign at the edge of the pumpkin field. In 1910, Ferdinand Kruger (father of 11 children and founder of the farm) was approached to put an underground train tunnel 200 feet under the property. He requested free electricity for life, transportation, shipping to and from Portland, and a spring for the farm’s water. A deal was struck. In 1949, he was given $350 to end the free electricity agreement. The spring was used until 1997, when a new well was drilled. The tunnel is still operated by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad.
View of Intel Building and Cranes: On the top of the property, you can view Intel and the cranes off to the right and a beautiful view of the valley and coast range.
Solar Panels: A year ago, a tornado hit the farm. TV channels came for a week to cover the story. The tornado tore up solar panels and shredded a large outdoor tent. Pumpkins picked up by the tornado were thrown everywhere. The corn plants formed a laid out circular pattern where the tornado touched down. Eventually everything was cleaned up and the corn maze took place as usual. The solar panels were rebuilt last year in a new location about 100 feet away.
Windmill: The 40-foot windmill is hard to miss. Each year Jim adds something new and unexpected; last year was the hobbit house and this year it is the windmill. Jim grew up in Kansas. “A windmill looks nice on a farm,” he said.
Houdini: Houdini is a llama who is an escape artist. Jim and Peggy found Houdini running loose with the elk for a year. Jim said that it took more than half a dozen people to catch him. “Once we got him home, he jumped over the top of the pen. He was then placed in a larger area in the upper yard and he jumped the fence again,” he said. Jim finally gave up on him. A few days later, Houdini jumped back in and has been there ever since. “He had become lonely and realized that he was fed here,” said Jim. He never ran away again.
Sam: Sam is a Pot Belly pig. Have you heard the expression “When pigs fly”? Some friends found Sam in Texas and then flew him back to Portland. After their family grew, they donated Sam to the farm as a pet. The owner still visits Sam every year
Go to plumperpumpkins.com or Like on Facebook to sign up and get the latest information.
(RR 10/20)