Hanford Insider: Young Family Farms Shows How A Pumpkin Patch Brings A Town Together

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On

Welcome And Weekly Preview

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this week's Hanford Insider, we take a trip to Young Family Farm's Pumpkin Patch and get a look behind the scenes with Justin and Nicole Young. Rob has your community news, and I'll have your sports report. This is the Hanford Insider for October twelfth.

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Welcome to the Hanford Insider Podcast. I'm Rob Bentley, bringing you the people, places, stories, and events that make Hanford and Kings County such a great place to call home. So sit back and let's get to know what's happening right here in our community. In

City Council And Local Updates

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community news this week, the Hanford City Council met last Tuesday, and some of the items that were discussed included a report from retail strategies about the Retail Recruitment Services partnership with the city, discussion of the formation of a Blue Ribbon Recreation Advisory Committee to evaluate potential recreation projects and funding options. Approval of a fencing project at the joint use softball fields at Hanford High School. Approval of grant funding for four EV charging stations at the City of Hanford Corporation Yard. Approval of two contracts for new fire apparatus for the Hanford Fire Department using Measure H funds. In other community news, the Salvation Army is in the process of lining up bell ringers for the holiday season. If you're interested, send me an email and I'll put you in touch with them. The Miss Kings County organization has announced that they're now seeking candidates for their annual scholarship program. Contact Miss KingsCountyorg at gmail.com for more information. The Itchy Pooch Dog Drooming Services is holding a pet blanket drive for local shelters. To donate, you can drop your donation off at 3224 West Courtner Street or contact them for pickup at 559-824-1380. We'll have Shammer on next week's show to talk more about this event.

Community Calendar Events Rundown

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Now let's take a look at this week's community calendar. On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, the Carnegie Museum will be open for the Building Kings County display from noon until 4. Visit Carnegie Museum of Kingscounty.org for more information. The Hanford High School Choir will be holding their fall concert on Tuesday, October 13th at the Presentation Center, beginning at 7.30 p.m. Kings County Community Action Organization will be holding a candlelight visual and resource fair on Wednesday, October 14th at 5 p.m. in Children's Storybook Garden. On Thursday, October 15th, the wave of light in honor of babies gone too soon will be held in the Centennial Park with activities beginning at 6 p.m. Witch's Night Out is in downtown Hanford on Friday, October 16th. The Walk for Life will be held at the Calvary Chapel Church on Saturday, October 17th, beginning at 8 a.m. The Queen Nation concert will be held at the Hanford Fox Theater on Saturday, October 17th at 7.30. Good seats are still available at foxhanford.com. Historian Michael Seamus will be speaking at the Benefit Fundraiser for the Kings Art Center and the Carnegie Museum on November 6th. Tickets are still available at each site for a few more days. Visit the Carnegie Museum website at Carnegie Museum of Kingscounty.org for more details. If you have an event coming up, large or small, and you'd like some help getting the word out, let's work together. Send your information to HanfordInsider at gmail.com. The Hanford Insider has the most comprehensive community calendar available at HanfordInsider.com. It's

Inside Young Family Farms Pumpkin Patch

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fall, y'all. Here in Hanford. We are so lucky to have the Young Family Farms in Hanford, located just west of Grangeville and 14th. And today we have with us Justin and Nicole Young of Young Family Farms. And uh welcome to the show, guys. Hey, good morning. Uh thanks for having us on.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Yeah, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_03 4:42

So this is an amazing place that you've created here. Justin, can you tell us kind of the vision behind Young Family Farms and uh what you do for the community?

SPEAKER_02 4:50

Yeah, so uh we have a local pumpkin patch here, five-acre corn maize, and we grow all the pumpkins here on site. That's uh five acres as well.

SPEAKER_03 5:00

Five acres. That's that's quite a bit of uh property to be able to uh develop this kind of a thing. What do you have on the farm? What are you growing behind us here?

SPEAKER_02 5:09

So we uh have about 20 different varieties of pumpkins, anywhere from heirlooms to orange carvers to big giant white polar bears. We also grow corn for our corn maize that'll get harvested at the end of the year and taken to cow feed.

SPEAKER_03 5:26

Nicole, this has turned into quite an event for families. As I look around, I see pumpkin patches, I see uh places for families to sit around fire pits. Uh tell us a little bit about the activities that you have here.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Yeah, absolutely. When you uh walk in here, you immediately see all kinds of different activities for the kiddos and family to enjoy. Whether you're a baby, it's not just like a pumpkin patch coming to pick pumpkins. We have lots of other activities to enjoy while you're here, like a corn pit. So it's a sensory play that the kids just absolutely love. We obviously have our corn maze that you can find your way or get lost in, um, as well as we have vintage hay rides out here that give hay rides around the farm, which is really fun because they get to go through the middle of the pumpkin patch. So as they go down, they can see all of the vines and the pumpkins growing, which is kind of like a really cool behind-the-scenes look for everyone to see. We also have games for the kids to play, so like tic-tac-toe with a pumpkin, um, ring toss. There's um places that you can take pictures with uh your family, cutouts that you can also take pictures with, bowling with a pumpkin. We have lots of activities for the kids, and then lots of places for photographers to also take photos that, you know, look really nice and perfect for your family fall photos, or even for sending out Thanksgiving cards, or heck, even if you want to make it your Christmas card this year.

SPEAKER_03 6:55

Yeah, lots of different photo spots. I know that on the weekends uh you have a lot of special activities. Sometimes you'll bring in a musical group. I know you have different food trucks that are rotating in and out. How does that look?

SPEAKER_01 7:06

Yeah, so we have a ton of vendors. We have lots of local craft vendors, food vendors, so you know, we have I don't even want to miss anyone, so I hate to say their names because I mean I know I'll forget someone and I'll feel bad, but lots of sweet treats, so between crepes and Dubai cups and cookies and milkshakes and snow cones, between, you know, burgers and pizza and wings and you name it. We have all kinds of different food choices and um, you know, items to pick up while you're here to stay cool right now while it's hot. Hopefully it cools down soon. But um, you know, fresh squeeze lemonade and kettle corn, all the fun things that you can get while you're out here. We also have fire pits that we do s'mores kits as it gets cooler, and then um we always do a country concert every year um out here as well.

SPEAKER_03 7:58

Yeah, lots of lots of things going on. I'd like to uh Justin, maybe you could uh uh start here. What is it about this place that you've created that you feel so special and why do you do it for the community?

SPEAKER_02 8:10

We uh created this here because our good family friends own this ranch and we ended up leasing it from them and thought it would be a good spot, you know, high, volume, traffic, and uh, you know, to bring the community together. We really didn't have something like this in in Hanford.

SPEAKER_03 8:29

How about you, Nicole? What do you think uh brings people to young family farms every year?

SPEAKER_01 8:34

You know, I really think it's just the experiences. People love to get out and experience activities with their kids. That's not just, you know, the traditional places that we have around town, which is great year long, but it's fun to have something new um for at least just thirty days for a season. Um families can come out and enjoy having fun with other families and friends and they take photos that they, you know, remember for a lifetime.

SPEAKER_03 9:04

So when a family comes in and they experience the hayride or the pumpkins or just everything, what is it, Nicole, that makes you just feel like this is all worth it? You're doing a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

You know what? The smiles on everyone's faces. You can tell everyone's having such a fun time with their family and you know, seeing people taking photos behind all of the backdrops and you know, just having that joy and then leaving, laughing and smiling with their families just makes it all worth it.

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This

The Crew And Year Round Work

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is not just a young family project. You have a lot of help with this. Uh, there is no way you could do this all by yourself. So, who are some of the people that have helped make this happen?

SPEAKER_02 9:47

Yeah, so uh my mother-in-law, Nicole's bomb, she's uh a big help. From watching the kids while we pick pumpkins or set this place up. Another friend of mine, James Helmuth, he's uh he's put in a lot of work out here as well from decorating, moving hay bells, putting the lights up. Um Nick Costamania. He's helped me a lot with uh tractors, planters, even uh irrigation. You know, he helped me stick all the irrigation lines in the ground, and and he's been uh he's been a big help to our family in putting this together. I also couldn't do it without my guys in the back picking pumpkins, you know. They uh they bust their butt back there in 90, 100 degree weather getting these pumpkin pumpkins picked to get put out here on the floor for us. Also, Josh Evangelo, he's uh he's been a huge help. He's uh he's in he's in the water truck keeping the dust down around this place constantly and picking pumpkins up, old pumpkins, cleaning up old inventory and putting new stuff out.

SPEAKER_03 10:51

Cause it's really it if you think about it, it's kind of a year-round project. I've driven by at different times during the year, and it may not have pumpkins out all year, but you're definitely doing little things here and there throughout the year to make it special for us in October, yeah?

SPEAKER_02 11:06

Correct, yeah. So I mean it's after the year ends, I uh we chop the corn off and then we have to rip the ground and and level it and and uh move DG back in and clean up weeds. So it's it's an it's an ever going project and we enjoy it, it's fun.

Pricing Social Media And Hours

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So, Nicole, when a family comes, is there an admission price that they pay or how does that work?

SPEAKER_01 11:31

No, we love that we're able to make this a free community experience. So even if you're just coming in because you want to bring the kids to experience and take photos, we don't charge a fee to um enter our farm. So it's free entrance. Um, there is a few separate fees, like if you want to go through the corn maze and the tractor rides, but pretty much everything we do here, we want to make it, you know, affordable um in this economy and then free to the public.

SPEAKER_03 12:03

That's fantastic. That that's just great. Where can people go to find out more information? I understand you have Instagram and social media sites. Uh what do those look like?

SPEAKER_01 12:12

Yeah, absolutely. We have an Instagram and a Facebook, like you said, and you can find us at young.family. Um, it's a green background with yellow label um as the profile picture on both.

SPEAKER_03 12:26

And uh you put up announcements, uh, Justin, you and I had talked earlier about um adding events throughout the season as things come up, maybe the weather changes, and you can do a few more things when it cools down finally. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:36

Yeah, no, so we uh have a couple different dinners, dinner under the stars, Nicole calls it, right? We have field trips, you know, many different schools come out and bring the kids, and Nicole puts a presentation on on how a pumpkin grows, and she also walks them through the corn maze, and they all get to come and uh pick a pumpkin out as well.

SPEAKER_03 12:57

Nicole, how long is the pumpkin patch open this year and what are the hours?

SPEAKER_01 13:02

So we are open till the 31st this year of the month. So Halloween will be our last day. We are open during the weekdays from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Fridays we do stay open a little bit later till 7.30. And then throughout the weekends, we're open from 11 to 7.30 p.m.

SPEAKER_03 13:23

Well, that's fantastic. Thank you so much for visiting with us, and thank you for what you do for the community. And I can't wait to see the smiling faces here at Young Family Farms. Thanks for having us on.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

Thank you so much. And now

Hanford Area Sports Report

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it's time for Hanford Insider Sports with Eric Bentley.

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It was a tough week for local football as all three teams fell last week. After playing at home four of the first five weeks of the season, the Hanford High football team has struggled to find its footing on the road, losing to Tulare Union last Friday to fall to 5-2 overall, 1-2 in EYL play. It was a low-scoring first half that saw the Bullpups trailing 14-8 at the break. Hanford High would strike first in the second half to take a 15-14 lead, but after that, the tribe would score twice, and despite a late Bullpup touchdown, Tilary Union was able to run out the clock and hang on for the 29-22 win. Scoring-wise for the Bullpups, Jaron Mao ran and threw for a score. Braylon Thomas caught a touchdown, and Sebastian Cartier ran for one. The gauntlet that is the EYL schedule continues this week as Hanford High will host Redwood, who is 6-1 on the year, coming off of a loss to Talery Western. The Sierra Pacific football team was at home last week and lost to Selma 33-25 to fall to 3-4 overall, 1-1 in league. It was a back and forth first half that actually saw the Golden Bears take a 17-14 lead into the half, but it was all Selma in the second half, scoring 19 unanswered points to put the game out of reach down the stretch. This week Sierra Pacific will look to bounce back in the clash of the claws against Hanford West, who was shut out by Reedley last week. For Hanford West, the loss to Reedley was their second time being shut out in as many games as the Huskies fall to 2-5 overall, 0-2 in league. In volleyball, make it eight in a row for the Sierra Pacific volleyball team, who took down Fowler in four sets and Carruthers in straight sets last week. After a back and forth start to the year, the Golden Bears have really found their footing at the right time, having only lost three total sets in their six league matches. That perfect six and oh Tri-County Sequoia League record is good enough for a two-game lead over second place Fowler and Selma, with a matchup against those Bears this Tuesday as well as winless Washington Union this Thursday. Hanford West and Hanford High Volleyball both went one and one on the week last week and are both three and three in respective league play. The Huskies swept Dainuba, then got swept by Kerman last week, while the Bullpups swept Mission Oak but got swept by Golden West. And one water polo update for you as the Sierra Pacific Boys were victorious in their crosstown matchup against Hanford West, final score of that one, 11-7. As always, if you have a score report or a team update for any team in any sport at any level, you can let us know by emailing HanfordInsider at gmail.com. I'm Eric Bentley, and this has been your Hanford Insider Sports Report.

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Well,

Support The Show And Stay Connected

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that wraps things up for this week's show. If you're enjoying the podcast and want to support it, you can head over to buymecoffee.com slash Hanford Insider to make a donation. Or you can Venmo me directly. To stay connected, join the Hanford Insider email list at HanfordInsider.com. You'll get weekly updates plus an exclusive newsletter delivered right to your inbox each Wednesday. I'll also really appreciate your help getting the word out about the show by liking and sharing posts on social media, or, like most people, just telling a friend. Don't forget, if you have a story idea, community event, or someone you think deserves to be featured, I'd love to hear from you. Email me anytime at HanfordInsider at gmail.com. You can follow the show on Facebook, Instagram, Freds, X, and YouTube at Hanford Insider for more content and updates. Thanks for listening. Have a great week.