A rich history
Andelin Family Farm is located on 150 acres of beautiful property in the middle of the Spanish Springs valley in Sparks, Nevada, and is currently operated by husband-and-wife Cameron and Natalie Andelin.
In the early 1980s, Cameron’s parents purchased the farm from the Gaspari Family. The Gasparis immigrated to California from Northern Italy and began farming in Mendocino County. When the father died, the mother moved six children, 11 cows, five horses, and some chickens to the farm in Spanish Springs.
Although the farm has changed a lot over the years, there are still some buildings, barns, and houses intact as a reminder of the Gaspari Family. “The best part of the purchase agreement was that the Gasparis could live on the farm as long as they wanted,” mentions Cameron Andelin. “We still have some houses on the farm that we actually rent out to people now, but it’s where the Gasparis originally lived.”
Changing hands
Cameron has fond memories of visiting Joe and Jenny Gaspari’s farm as a boy, exploring and collecting eggs from the chicken coop with his brothers and friends after his parents acquired the land.“Fast forward to 2010, my parents decided they were going to move to Idaho and asked me and my wife if we wanted to live on the farm with our kids,” Cameron says.
“We jumped at the opportunity. In the beginning, I was still working as an accountant full-time and did that for around four years until our festivals started to take off. That’s when I quit my accounting job.”
After a while of the family settling into their new life on the farm, Natalie – Cameron’s wife – had the idea of starting a pumpkin patch and opening it up to the public. Ten years later, the Andelin Family Farm Pumpkin Patch is a staple fall-activity for the Reno community, with thousands of families and groups flocking to the farm for all of the fun fall festivities on offer. “I know that the community likes having us here, and we are equally thankful to the community for supporting our farm and allowing us to host all of these events,” says Cameron. The Andelin Family Farm welcomes just under 100,000 visitors throughout the year.
Winter at the farm
The Fall Festival, which ended in October, is the farm’s most popular event and includes a pumpkin patch, corn maze, zombie paintball, hay rides, and so many other family-friendly activities. Since closing day, the farm has been in its “off-season”, and has been very busy preparing for the next big event – the Spring Festival. “During the winter we’re in off-season, and things are much slower,” explains Cameron. “As we start preparing for the event season, we spend most of our time outdoors, setting up for the next festival and working on projects. This winter, we’ve been working on rebuilding some of our animal pens. We always have irrigation projects on the go, and we’ve added a diaper-changing station and lounge to make the farm more comfortable for mothers. We’re always trying to proactively think of ways to make the customer experience at the farm better.”
Expanding interests
The Andelins are also expanding their farm store to make even more of their fresh, delicious produce available to visitors, as well as converting an existing shed into a playhouse for kids. Over the last couple of years, they have also been working alongside the City of Sparks, taking steps towards commercially expanding their farm in the future. “We want to build a restaurant, a bakery, and restrooms,” explains Cameron. “But in order to do that, we need to connect to all the sewage and water systems, and have all those entitlements in place to move forward.”
While in the off-season, projects and farm work can sometimes get delayed or halted by the harsh and unpredictable weather. “With farming, there’s always weather-related hurdles,” Cameron shrugs. “You never have perfect weather for growing – either it’s too hot or too cold. When it rains a lot, our fields can get pretty flooded if they get too saturated with water. One fall, we got so much we had to start pumping it out into a ditch.”
The animals
Andelin Family Farm is home to a wide variety of animals – camels, alpacas (above), ponies, chickens, horses, cows, turkeys, sheep, peafowl, llamas, kune kune pigs, emus (below), goats, and more. Each pen has an information card that provides facts and information on each animal and there are plenty of opportunities to interact with animals on a more intimate level, providing this multi-sensory and educational experience.
The farm’s next big event is its Spring Festival which kicks off in April, opening to visitors Thursdays to Sundays. The main feature is the baby animal petting zoo, a popular attraction with visitors young and old. People have the unique opportunity to snuggle up with baby goats, piglets, calves, chicks, and lambs in supervised animal pens, even getting the chance to bottle feed them. The farm also hosts an Easter egg hunt, and opens up its tulip fields to the public for “U-Pick-Tulips.” This season, the farm has planted 50,000 tulips which will soon be available for the public to come and pick themselves, a fun and unique springtime activity.
Navigating through the pandemic
In 2020, due to COVID-19 social distancing and rules concerning public gatherings, the Andelin Family Farm Spring Festival looked slightly different. Instead of simply cancelling the event altogether, the family came up with the creative idea of hosting a Drive-Thru Baby Animal Festival. Visitors booked tickets and traveled through the farm in their vehicles, passing by all the animal pens. “People loved it,” Cameron says. “My wife and I recorded ourselves for an audio tour. The kids especially loved it. They would unbuckle their seatbelts, roll the windows down, and moo at the cows as they went past.”
The pandemic also prompted the Andelins to begin hosting private group tours of the farm, which they now provide year-round as a permanent offering.
“2022 was a particularly challenging year being at the tail-end of COVID. Everything just costs more – our fertilizer, fuel, everything,” says Cameron. “But it seems like there is always some sort of unexpected challenge or hurdle we don’t anticipate. We just have faith, work really hard, and stay positive.”
A family affair
Cameron and Natalie have five children, four of whom have since moved out of the family home and headed off to college. “Our kids have been heavily involved in the farm, which has been a blessing for them, and for us,” says Cameron. “It’s a bit of a transition not having them here at home, and we do miss the days when they were all here at the farm.”
Despite not having their children around to assist around the farm as much anymore, Andelin Family Farm is not short of helping hands. In 2022, the farm employed over 300 people throughout the seasons. “We’ve become quite a big employer and provide a lot of part-time work for people – everybody from retirees to teenagers, moms, and dads.”
What’s coming up?
Aside from the Baby Animal and Tulip Festival, the Andelin Family Farm will continue hosting educational school field trips, as well as a kid's summer farm camp. Other spring events to look forward to are the annual Mother’s Day Brunch, and a craft and vendor fair at the beginning of May.
“We’re excited for 2023. Our baby goat yoga will be coming back in May. We’ll be having painting classes, and yesterday we were just talking about potentially doing a knitting class with our alpacas,” Cameron concluded, never short on ideas.