Richard Meador’s days are busy with keeping the pumpkin patch running. When he’s not handling the day-to-day work of keeping the farm open, he’s planning how to expand the farm in the future.
It’s not easy work. Charline and Richard Meadors, a wife and husband team, have been running Sally Gap Pumpkin Patch farm with their four children for the past 14 years. Each year has brought a challenge with it; usually, the challenge is bad weather, which is always outside of any farmer’s control. In 2020, the nearby Cumberland River flooded and washed away several of the buildings they had built over the years.
“In farming I’ve learned one thing,” Richard says. “There are good years, and there are bad years.”
Before Richard and Charline bought the first parcel of land that would become Sally Gap Pumpkin Patch, they lived in a neighborhood near Cumberland Falls. They had built Charline’s dream house on their plot: a three bedroom house with 30 feet of kitchen cabinets. But after a few years of living in their house, they realized they wanted something different. They wanted a farm.
Charline started to look at properties, but everything they found was too expensive. Then she found a farm that was within their budget. And there was more: Charline remembered a skeleton key that her grandmother found at a yard sale about fifty years ago. If the skeleton key fit the house, then they agreed they would buy it.
The key did fit. Richard and Charline sold the dream house and moved onto the farm that November.
These days, the farm is thriving. School buses bring in children throughout the week for tours of the pumpkin patch. There’s a corn maze – one that Charline usually designs herself each year – for the children to wander through, and farm animals for them to pet and feed.
Each member of the family contributes to the farm year-round. Richard drives the horses on the wagon rides that take customers around the farm. Charline pours her love for art into designing and creating the decorations that adorn the pumpkin patch. All four of their children have been working on the farm since they were young. Even their new daughter-in-law, Haley, joined the farm after she married Richard Jr. last year.
Even through the challenges, Richard says running a pumpkin patch farm is worth it. He feels blessed to be working with his family on their farm, on the days he feels discouraged, his faith keeps him going.
"God has been real good to me," he says.
Richard says horses are used for 99% of the work on the farm. In addition to giving wagon rides for visitors, the family also uses horses for plowing, harvesting crops, and logging. He says that using horses instead of tractors is more sustainable, as horses don’t tear up the ground as much.
On the pumpkin patch farm, boots aren't just about fashion. In a lifestyle where the family is working out in the elements every day, boots are a necessity.
Faith is the glue that keeps the Meadors family together. Despite their busy life on the farm, they make time to run a youth group every Wednesday. Each week, Lillian and Haley Meadows make dinner for church members following the youth group meeting.
Caring for animals is essential to the farm’s success. They have 13 draft horses and 5 ponies that work on the farm and delight the children who visit the pumpkin patch. Fluffy, one of the family’s many farm dogs, can often be found running around the farm.
Mulberry Community Church is located down the road from Sally Gap Pumpkin Patch. The church serves approximately 100 community members who come together each week to worship together. The church building was built in 1855.
Lillian and Haley take in the sunset over the hills behind the church. Haley joined the Meadors family last year when she married Richard Jr. She now lives on the farm, and works in their restaurant.