Spieker's Pumpkin Farm
Jan 25, 2019
Tom Spieker grew up helping his father raise feeder pigs on their farm in Random Lake, Wisconsin. In 1987, they got rid of the animals. Tom was not ready to give up on farming the land that had been in his family for 4 generations. He had watched his family take care of the land and wanted to do the same. The following year, Tom and his wife, Annette, came up with a plan to plant pumpkins in the pig pasture. They ended up harvesting a small trailer of them and were able to sell the pumpkins. Each year they added more plants and continued to grow their business.
“When we started the business,” Annette said, “we could stay home and do this together as a family. Even when our sons were really little, they would sit on Tom’s lap and help cultivate the pumpkins.” Now grown up, their son, Ross, is helping run the business.
Spieker’s Pumpkin Farm has become an annual destination for many visitors. It opens the second last weekend in September and stays open until October 31st. It is important to them to have a big selection and a variety of top-quality pumpkins. The Spiekers have added a corn maze and offer Indian Corn and many other fall related products for sale at the farm. During the winter months, the family puts their heads together to plan the corn maze and get it all mapped out. They want their visitors to have a true pumpkin farm experience. “It is a labor of love,” stated Annette. “We love what we do and we love seeing all the happy people and kids.”
Each year as the season rolls around, the Spiekers look forward to seeing all the families and the school kids come to visit. They said it is really fun to meet all the people as they purchase the big, high-quality pumpkins and see their big smiles. They are even starting to see the next generation of visitors and every once in a while, they get to meet weather and news celebrities that stop out to do a broadcast from the farm.
“On the weekends, we have a whole bunch of family that enjoys coming out and helping,” Tom said. “It is so great to be all together sharing our business with our family.”
“It is so much fun to see the harvest and find the biggest pumpkin,” Ross added. “We have people come from a long way away. One lady told us she was packing up her pumpkins for Florida.”
The Spiekers enjoy supporting their community in any way they can. Annette is a member of the Garden Club. Her hobbies are flowers, crafts and shopping. Tom likes making fire wood, working in his shop, ice fishing and hunting. Ross does a lot of hunting. They all have full-time jobs, too.
Thank you to Tom, Annette and Ross for their participation as this week’s Farmer Friday story. Playing in the dirt and seeing what you can grow in it was a fun ambition that you turned into a successful family business. Congratulations! We wish you all the best!
#FarmerFriday ...post #106. To show our appreciation to our producer members Country Visions Cooperative will be giving a snapshot look of our customers and their operations in this feature each Friday