Key Takeaways
- Kelly Schultz, an antique seller by profession, operates The Great Pumpkin Farm for about seven weeks a year.
- Schultz had no farming experience when he bought the 85-acre property for about $650,000 in 1993.
- Today, the farm draws more than 100,000 visitors each fall with pumpkins, hayrides, live entertainment and other attractions.
About 33 years ago, Kelly Schultz told his friends and family that he was going to open a pumpkin farm.
“Everybody laughed at me,” he said in a new interview with CNBC Make It.
The endeavor was outside Schultz’s area of expertise. He was a second-generation antiques seller and didn’t know anything about farming. He bought the small farm in Clarence, New York, anyway.
No one’s laughing at him now.
Schultz, 74, now runs The Great Pumpkin Farm, located about 15 miles northeast of Buffalo. More than 100,000 people visit the seasonal attraction each fall.
The farm generated $2 million in revenue in 2025, according to financial documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. It operates for just seven weeks a year.
This year’s season runs from September 19 through October 31. Pumpkins are only part of the draw. Visitors can ride a pumpkin-themed train, enter pie-eating contests or explore a five-acre corn maze. Weekend admission is $20, though some activities, including the corn maze, cost extra.
How he got started
Schultz had the idea to open a farm of his own after visiting a crowded pumpkin patch in upstate New York in the early 1990s. He observed a simple operation with “muddy parking lots” and “not a whole lot of restrooms,” but there were still “a zillion people” browsing and buying pumpkins anyway.
“I looked around, and I said, ‘I could do this, better than this,’” Schultz said.
When the former cattle farm next to his antique store hit the market in 1993, Schultz bought the 85-acre property for about $650,000, intent on transforming it into a pumpkin farm.
Schultz noted that more people visit the farm every year.
“There are people that come here almost every weekend,” he said. “They love it so much, they just keep coming back.”
Americans are spending more on Halloween than ever before
For Schultz and other seasonal entrepreneurs, Halloween brings a short but lucrative window of opportunity.
According to the National Retail Federation’s annual Halloween survey, released on September 22, Americans will spend about $13.5 billion celebrating the holiday in 2026, up from $13.1 billion last year. The survey asked 7,889 consumers about their Halloween plans.
Consumers expect to spend an average of $115.14 per person, with purchases ranging from costumes to decorations.
Halloween has become an important holiday for more people. Nearly three-quarters of consumers surveyed, or 74%, plan to celebrate this year, compared with 68% in 2019.
Among those celebrating, 42% plan to carve pumpkins, and an identical percentage plan to decorate their homes and yards. Handing out candy remains the most popular tradition, at 61%, followed by dressing in costume, at 50%.
The sales opportunity also starts well before October 31. Nearly half of Halloween shoppers, 49%, said they planned to begin buying in September or earlier, compared with 34% a decade ago. Businesses have more of a chance to sell seasonal Halloween products weeks before the holiday itself.
Key Takeaways
- Kelly Schultz, an antique seller by profession, operates The Great Pumpkin Farm for about seven weeks a year.
- Schultz had no farming experience when he bought the 85-acre property for about $650,000 in 1993.
- Today, the farm draws more than 100,000 visitors each fall with pumpkins, hayrides, live entertainment and other attractions.
About 33 years ago, Kelly Schultz told his friends and family that he was going to open a pumpkin farm.
“Everybody laughed at me,” he said in a new interview with CNBC Make It.
The endeavor was outside Schultz’s area of expertise. He was a second-generation antiques seller and didn’t know anything about farming. He bought the small farm in Clarence, New York, anyway.