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- Pigeon Roost Farm Evolves into Intense Fall Operation
- By Karen Gentry
Associate Editor
- When Ralph and Janice Jutte purchased the Pigeon Roost Farm near Kirkersville and Hebron, Ohio in 1979 they wanted to be able to provide their children with a strong work ethic and also help fund their college educations.
Ralph had grown up on a farm and he and his brother learned early marketing lessons by planting, harvesting and selling melons to help finance their own way through college. “Dad provided the equipment and the land,” said Jutte. The profits were then split three ways.
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Ralph Jutte sells a variety of sizes of pumpkins at Pigeon Roost Farm in Hebron, Ohio.
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- The Juttes went looking for land and felt 80 acres was needed for a farm market. They found their parcel that was part of the Ohio Refugee Land Tract and named the farm for the now extinct Passenger Pigeon nesting site that was once there. When the Juttes’ three children, Doug, Pamela and Amy were eight -12 years old they were put in charge of the farm market at Pigeon Roost that specialized in homegrown cantaloupe.
Since those early years the Juttes’ children have gone on to impressive careers of their own and their parents believe that the early lessons of the market helped them to be successful. Doug is now a pediatrician and graduate o
- f Cornell University and Harvard Medical School. Pamela earned a Ph.D. in marine biology from the University of California - Berkeley and works for the Marine Resource Lab in Charleston, S.C. Amy earned a master’s degree in media production from Northwestern University and works for Akamai Technology in San Francisco.
Since those early days the Pigeon Roost Farm Market has evolved into an intensive fall, entertainment operation with pumpkins as their main crop, Jutte said. They started with one acre of pumpkins 10 years ago and now grow 12-14 acres of pumpkins. When it comes time to sell, they fill their half-acre barnyard with pumpkins.
“We’ve grown tremendously in the last 10 years,” said Jutte, who has enjoyed 15- 20% growth each year. “They say the fall season is the next largest marketing season to Christmas,” he said.
Jutte said that when customers started asking about buying straw bales, they incorporated several acres of wheat in their crop rotation for the straw. “We started the same way with corn shocks,” he said.
They keeps lots of farm animals including cows, goats, a miniature donkey, chickens, geese, ducks, turkeys, sheep and rabbits, and they have an old barn they open up to the public. “We try to make it a very positive farm experience for people,” said Jutte. Antique farm equipment is a hit with the older folks who often tell their children and grandchildren their memories of driving a particular tractor, Jutte said.
He believes the growth of the fall market can be partially attributed to the popularity of the fall decorating season. They sell Indian corn, corn shocks, gourds, broom corn, 20 varieties of winter squash, Halloween related crafts and toys.
Each year new ideas are tried and the fall attractions expand. Three years ago the Juttes added a corn maze and two years ago horse drawn wagon rides. This year they also plan to expand the children’s activity area near the corn maze with additional play equipment.
For more than five years the Juttes have been members of the North American Farmers’ Direct Marketing Association (NAFDMA) and enjoy the meetings and “great“ bus tours of that association. Ralph said in addition to seeing other farm market operations, the relaxed atmosphere on the bus tours encourages social interaction and exchange of ideas with others.
“We try to keep an eye open for new ideas,” Jutte said. While visiting their son in California they came across a unique, mini-pumpkin grown by J. E. Perry Farms, Fremont, Calif. He believes this pumpkin variety, Lil Pump-Ke-Mon from Harris Seeds will be an attractive addition.
Jutte said he believes it’s important to come up with a new theme for the corn maze every year. This season he has sketched out a huge, carved pumpkin face. Last year’s maze, shaped like the state of Ohio, included trivia questions on Ohio.
Pigeon Roost Farm targets families with young children as their primary market. They do not offer nighttime activities for teenagers and charge a reasonable $2.50 admission for their maze.
Janice and Ralph Jutte work to keep their overhead low and do not want to get too big. Janice handles the school groups, amounting to approximately 2,000 school children per year.
“It’s a good way to get new customers. Young children come back with their parents for several years afterward,” he said.
“We’re a very intense, short duration farm market,” Jutte said. They are open mid-September until Halloween, seven days a week for six weeks, daylight until dark. “There’s more to a farm market than a load of pumpkins at the end of the drive,” he said. Visitors to Pigeon Roost typically spend one to three hours at the market. Jutte, a chemical engineer by profession, took early retirement to be able to focus more on their fall operation.
He advises people thinking about getting into the fall business that location near a population base with the appropriate demographics is important. “Many people probably don’t realized that it’s taken us 10 years to grow and evolve to where we are now. A good market takes a lot of effort and time to build,” said Jutte.
Pigeon Roost is 120 miles from the home farm where Jutte grew up. His brother, Oscar took over that farm and grows strawberries, cantaloupe, grain and a few pumpkins as well as a farm market.
“We started from scratch and had to develop a business,” said Jutte. As the Jutte children were there at the start of the business, when they come back to visit they can appreciate that their hard work beginning 20 years ago to help build the market. Along the way they developed a good work ethic, gained experience working with people and learned the value of money, according to their proud father.
- Contact: Ralph & Janice Jutte, (740) 928-4925, R.Jutte@prodigy.net.
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