Bloom Where You're Planted Farm, off Highway 50 in Avoca, is a real working farm and pumpkin patch.
“My grandparents bought it in 1944 so my mom was born here, and grew up here,” Teresa Lorensen, Bloom Where You’re Planted Owner said.
She and her husband Terry started the pumpkin patch in 2005 on land her family still farms today.
“My grandma was still alive when we started the pumpkin patch, so she got to see what we were doing with the farm which was kind of neat,” Lorensen said. “She was impressed and surprised at what we could do with it.”
It started with pumpkins and a little gift shop; they've expanded over the years based on customer's requests.
“Everything is geared toward a farm theme,” Lorensen said. “We’ve got horse swings and a bucking barrel that you can ride on that is a bucking bronco.”
She said the corn pit is every kid's favorite stop and most could spend all day in there if it weren’t for the other activities like duck races, slides, and a hayride.
“We wanted to have a little day trip on our fall break,” Phil Manley said. “We wanted to get out of town a little bit. We tried to find a pumpkin patch to avoid the crowds so here we came a little bit further out of town.”
On a busy day, Bloom Where You're Planted has about 750 guests on its seven-acre pumpkin patch. Nearly everything is outdoors with plenty of fresh air and room to social distance.
“You don’t have to be close to anybody, even your own family if you don’t want to,” Lorensen joked.
Bloom Where You're Planted is open Monday and Tuesday from 10 to 4, Friday-Saturday, and Sunday from 10 to 6 through Halloween.
Several other farms offer similar, less crowded fall family fun:
Pam Nelson Produce
Martin's Hillside Orchard
