An American tradition, the annual pumpkin farm, is alive and well in the Sacramento County town of Wilton with the successful operation of Fog Willow Pumpkin Farm.

Despite providing pumpkins, hayrides and other forms of entertainment for visitors of this popular farm just south of Elk Grove, Joe Cates, who owns the farm with his wife Stacey, said that these features are only part of the mission of his business. Another part is to provide an educational experience for people of all ages, but mainly children.

Each weekday throughout October, school busses from the Greater Sacramento area and beyond roll into the eight-acre farm and elementary school students enthusiastically spend mornings and early afternoons learning about agriculture, a topic that Cates stated is no small portion of the farm’s objectives.

“The thing that we really push here is this is all about agriculture,” Cates said. “The Central Valley is the fruit basket of the world and a lot of it has gone away. We get so many people who are transplants to Sacramento or Elk Grove and wherever and they have no knowledge of any of this.”

In regard to the many local people who have limited understanding about agriculture and farm life, Cates, his wife and the Fog Willow staff are determined to continue Fog Willow’s approach to education by providing informative tours and demonstrations and answering questions about agriculture and farm life related topics.

“Providing an educational experience has always been our emphasis,” Cates said. “That’s the nerve that we’ve touched upon. It’s not about Halloween and bounce houses and scary, it’s about harvest and farm and old fashioned.”

In keeping with its goal of providing an educational experience, Fog Willow staff often gives educational tours and teaches farm life through such “udder-ly farmtastic” activities as milking wooden cows and observing eggs underneath hens in chicken nesting boxes.

In addition to providing such educational experiences and featuring a selection of hundreds of pumpkins in many shapes and sizes, Fog Willow offers its visitors hayrides along the Cosumnes River, a petting zoo, pony rides, an adventure course, a 12-foot-tall straw pyramid with 465 bails of straw for adventurous climbers, the Cow Town Express Barrel Train for small children, a shaded picnic area, weekend barbecues, pumpkin and cartoon caricatures and craft and gift items.

Animals are one of the most popular features of Fog Willow, since guests can get close to them and learn about their life on the farm.

The farm’s animals include Scottish Highland cattle, miniature horses, alpacas, llamas, multiple types of sheep and goats, chickens, rabbits, Bernese mountain dogs and a white and orange cat, which is appropriately named Pumpkin.

Cates said that he can often see the importance of carrying on the tradition of the American pumpkin farm.

Referring to the pumpkin farm as “one of the last American traditions,” Cates said that watching four generations of family members take a hayride at his farm can be a pretty emotional experience.

But keeping a tradition alive is certainly not Cates’s only motivation. He is also supporting his wife’s love for Fog Willow.

Cates said that the idea for Fog Willow began when Stacey, who is a kindergarten teacher at Florence Markofer Elementary School in the Elk Grove Unified School District, returned home from a school field trip somewhat dejected.

“Stacey, a fourth generation farm girl, pulled into a place with her kindergarten class and there were 17 busses there and that equates to over a thousand kids,” Cates said. “They stood around and waited for a hayride, then they stood in line and waited for a pumpkin and then they stood in line and waited to pet two cows. She came home afterward and said, ‘There’s got to be a different way to do this.’”

Stacey Cates, whose mother was a schoolteacher and whose father was president of a school board, felt very strongly about starting a pumpkin farm of her own.

Furthermore, Stacey Cates felt that she would have a good business partner in her husband, since he had a background coordinating large entertainment events.

To top it all off, the fact that Cates and his wife owned eight acres of scenic property along the Cosumnes River certainly did not hurt the prospects of such a venture.

“All the moons lined up,” Cates said. “The property is perfect for it, the location is perfect for it, she has all the teaching background, I have the event background and it just lined up perfectly.”

Opening its first season only five years ago, Fog Willow is already recognized as one the region’s most successful pumpkin farms.

Although the pumpkin farm is open to the public, Cates said that its daily school program is sufficient to label the farm as a success.

“Now we’re at the point where we are literally half sold out for field trips by Christmas,” Cates said.

Having good integrity and offering an enjoyable place where students can learn is something that many teachers, including Diana Van De Pol, a second grade teacher at Mary Tsukamoto Elementary School, appreciate about Fog Willow Pumpkin Farm.

“[Through Fog Willow], the students get a better understanding of how the pumpkins grow, see the animals that are out here and really get an understanding of urban life versus rural life,” Van De Pol said. “Most of our students aren’t accustomed to farm life.”

Located less than 30 minutes from anywhere in the Sacramento area, Fog Willow will be open to the public daily from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Oct. 31.

For additional information about Fog Willow Pumpkin Farm, call (916) 687-4547 or visit the Web site www.fogwillow.com.