With the last days of the short six-week season winding down, Andrea Webb Smith still works non-stop to keep everything at Two Sisters Pumpkin Patch in order.
The animals are tended to, the treats at the counter are restocked, the colorful gourd displays are reorganized, the register is opened and the tractors are started to make sure they’re ready for the day. Life on the farm for Andrea means taking care of the land that has been in her family for 100 years, and she takes that job seriously.
The pumpkin patch sits on 250 acres of farm land along the border of Mt. Sterling and Owingsville. The land has existed in other operating forms, such as dairy farm and tobacco farm. This year Andrea and her sister, Alecia, are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the pumpkin patch as an agri-tourism attraction. The two sisters grew up watching their parents, Susie Webb and A.C. Webb, put their heart and soul into the work on the farm. Since their father’s passing in 2017, they are determined to carry on his legacy of hard work and dedication to the animals, the land and the community.
Looking around the farm, you can see A.C. Webb in just about everything. The tires from his tractor now used as a playground for the goats. The picnic tables he built now give children a place to sit and paint pumpkins. The old wrenches he used hang on the wall in the barn store. Andrea follows in her father’s footsteps by staying devoted to her faith and spreading love wherever she can.
“It’s never supposed to be about me,” she says. “It’s about showing the beauty God has created and sharing that with the community.”
For Andrea, sharing God’s creation means working with other employees at the farm to get a wheelchair out to the pumpkin patch so that no one feels left out. It means greeting customers with a hug and thanking them for coming. “We are huggers here,” she tells people as they walk up to shake her hand. It means buying pizza and inviting teens from a local residential treatment center to hang out at the farm for a few hours. She cares about every person who steps on to the property and will go the extra mile to make sure that time at the pumpkin patch is enjoyable.
“The farm has really helped me get involved in the lives of young people,” she says. When teens from the children’s services center get to come out on the farm, they have a great time catching up with Andrea and her mother, who they call Mamaw. They chase each other through the corn maze, sift through the candy basket for Tootsie Rolls and feed the chickens some leftover pizza crust. Andrea asks them about their lives, how they are doing in the moment, and what they want to be when they get older.
“I want to help them realize that they are fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God, and that he has a purpose and a plan for their life.”
If you ask her about her work on the farm, she will tell you again and again that this is her mission and her calling from God. The work she does day in and day out is not a matter of being a business owner, but a matter of providing a place of community and fun to everyone who visits.
She wants to make sure everyone feels included and loved when they step onto Two Sisters Pumpkin Patch. “There are pumpkin patches everywhere. The fact that they choose to come here is, you know, we’re just grateful,” she says. “There’s a verse in the Bible that says to those that much is given, much is required. And I think, I had so much love poured into me, and you’ve got to give that back. You have to.”