Kids and families are petting goats at the annual fall festival at Andelin farms in Sparks, Nevada. Natalie Andelin looks around with a smile as she explains the history of her farm– that is now one of the biggest fall attractions in Northern Nevada.
“It was a hay and cattle ranch, bought from the Gasperi family, by our family, the Andelin family, in about 1982, and it was always Grandma and Grandpa's house, this is my husband's parents I'm referring to,” she explains. “When they decided to move to Idaho, they weren't quite ready to sell the property, and they didn't want to just lease to anybody. So they asked if we'd want to lease from them, and so we moved over, and they had sold off most of their cattle, and we just had this idea to have a pumpkin patch.”
The pumpkin patch started in 2010 as a way to bring the community together and to create something fun for her whole family to partake in.
“Our kids at the time were ages two to 11,” she remembers of the beginning. “So I would often have my daughter in a backpack, you know, carrying her around while I was working outside. Now they're ages 15 to 24 and they have grown up doing this with us.”
Family is one of the core values Natalie Andelin tries to provide to the community through her farm.
“I was here in October of 2021 for my daughter's graduation pictures. And, so, long story short, I was going through cancer. And I had just had my first chemo. And I lost all my hair. And, I came here and I just... I just felt so much hope and calm and peace,” says the main coordinator for the fall festival, Sara Jo Johnson, explaining her own involvement.
Another staff behind the organization, Greg Johnson, who grew up in the midwest Johnson, feels that younger generations are becoming more and more detached from farming and land.
“There's fewer and fewer opportunities for kids to get out into both nature, and agriculture and stuff like that,” he said.
Natalie, the owner of Andelin farms, sees her fall festival as a way to showcase that while Nevada is in the desert, agriculture is still one of Nevada’s most important industries. Ranches in the silver state rank third largest in the county. And her family has seen success in the industry.
“I think when people think of Nevada they don't think of agriculture ,” she said. “They don't think of ‘wow, that's a place to have, you know, any kind of agritourism event,’ and so we love that we have found pumpkins that do grow well in our environment. We do love varieties. And so we grow a huge variety. We probably have over 25 varieties of pumpkins this year, all colors and shapes and sizes…”
The main hurdle for Nevada’s farmers is water. Pumpkins in particular need one inch of water a week. So it might seem daunting to start something like a pumpkin patch in a city like Sparks, but Natalie Andelin found ways around that.
“Being able to tap into the water we have the ore ditch that we tap in from, and we also have a line from the city. As long as you can get the water you need in this desert climate, and finding the right pumpkin varieties in the growing season, there is definitely some growing success you can have with pumpkins,” she said.
Expanded activities at the farm now include sunflower yoga, painting classes, baby animal days, craft classes, and even goat yoga, where goats join in on lessons.