Nisqually Valley’s Schilter Family Farm has become much more than a pumpkin patch
Stephanie Schilter of Schilter Family Farm loves seeing the faces of children visiting a farm for the first time, but she and husband Jeff Schilter started a pumpkin patch 25 years ago because it made financial sense.
These days, the Fall Harvest Festival draws more than 50,000 people per year, Stephanie Schilter said. The farm, in the Nisqually Delta, also sells Christmas trees and in 2020 began hosting a Sunflower Experience each September.
Last year, the farm began renting fire pits, outdoor “rooms” mowed into a corn field, and this year, the Schilters turned an old barn into a beer barn that also serves hard cider and seltzer and provides a sheltered seating area.
As those additions suggest, farm visits aren’t just for children looking to visit baby animals, ride in wagons and jump on a bounce pillow.
“We have a lot of young couples who come on dates,” Schilter told the Olympian. “They enjoy coming to get a pumpkin and go on a wagon ride. They might have a beer, get cider doughnuts and do some shopping. They might rent a fire pit.”
Attracting 21- to 35-year-olds was the purpose of the Sunflower Experience, which includes photo props to appeal to the selfie set along with food, drinks, music and, of course, flowers.
In Jeff Schilter’s family since 1938, the 180-acre property was a dairy farm until the late ’90s, when water-quality concerns led the state to require farmers to build underground lagoons to hold manure. In the Nisqually Delta, where the water table is high, installing a lagoon would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
So, sad though they were to sell the cows, the couple turned to growing crops that would draw visitors to the farm, located just off I-5.
“We were looking for a new way of farming,” Schilter said. “We decided to turn our location into an asset. We wanted to sell directly to our customers from our farm.”
Pumpkins, she said, were easy to grow, and the owners of neighboring Medicine Creek Farm, which had hosted a pumpkin patch, had decided to stop planting pumpkins after the Nisqually Valley flooded in 1996.
The Schilters planted their first crop of the bright orange gourds in 1997 and began marketing to local schools. “We invited teachers to bring their classes to plant pumpkin seeds in the spring,” Stephanie Schilter said. “That way, they would come back in the fall and do their field trip here,
“It was minute compared to what we do now,” she said, “but after doing one season, we thought we could make a go of it.”
From there, the pumpkins — and the business — kept growing.
“It’s a generational thing now because we’ve been doing it so long,” Schilter said. “We see whole families, with grandparents coming with their adult kids and their grandkids. It’s become a tradition.”
Fall Harvest Festival
What: Schilter Family Farm is celebrating its 25th festival, featuring a pumpkin patch, a corn maze, fire pit rentals, a beer barn and more.
When: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday and Saturday through Oct. 31
Where: Schilter Family Farm, 141 Nisqually Cutoff Rd. SE, Olympia
Tickets: Free to visit the pumpkin patch, $7-$14 for admission to wagon rides, corn mazes, the jump pillow and other activities. There’s an extra charge for some activities.
More information: https://schilterfamilyfarm.com,
More fall farm fun
Hunter Family Farm, 7401 Yelm Hwy. SE, Olympia. Pumpkin patch, corn mazes, wagon rides and more, noon-6 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday through Oct. 30. $9-$12. http://hunterfamilyfarm.com, 360-456-0466
Lattin’s Country Cider Mill & Farm, 9402 Rich Rd. SE, Olympia. Applefest and pumpkin patch, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday through Oct. 31. Free admission, $5 parking. 360-491-7328
Rutledge Family Farm, 302 93rd Ave. SE, Olympia. Pumpkin patch, corn maze, haunted maze, fire pit rentals and more, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. daily through Oct. 31. Prices vary. https://rutledgecornmaze.com, 360-357-3700
This story was originally published October 17, 2021 at 5:45 AM.