Grampa’s Farm will be open the weekends of Sept. 26 & 27, Oct. 3 & 4 and Oct.10 & 11 from 10 a.m.–5 p.m. With the passing of “Grampa” Jim Severt, the family wishes to continue Grampa’s Farm as a tribute to him.
Jim wanted to give children a special day: a day of fun, a day of learning and a day they will always remember. It was his desire to give a free pumpkin to everyone 12 years old and younger, to have a family fun day and the experience of petting all the farm animals. This was a longtime dream of Jim’s and his family will carry on the tradition that he started.
Enjoy the activities of a hayride to the pumpkin patch, a large and small corn maze, large haystack with tunnels, two petting zoos include goats, lambs, pigs, chickens, bunnies and more, pony rides, milk a cow, tire playground, large sandboxes of corn, and wood stamp your initials. Tour the barn to see ice cream and apple cider making with samples, bomb a buck slingshot, school house, hand washing laundry with wringer, kids dress up area, corn shelling and make corn dolls, ride the large wooden rocking horse, see many antiques and plenty of farm history.
There will be food and snacks available for purchase at “Chad’s Café” and cotton candy, caramel apples, popcorn and pie at the Red Shed by the silo. For those who like fall decorations, there will be plenty of big pumpkins, gourds and corn stalks for purchase in the Market Wagon. Grampa’s Farm was very fortunate not to get the hail that so many did in the Merrill area. This year’s crop of 4,500 pumpkins is bigger and better than any other year.
Grampa’s Farm promises a full day of fun and enjoyment with admission of $10 a person; children 2 and under free. There is no extra cost for any of the activities.
The farm at N2613 Norwegian Rd. has been in the Severt family for more than 100 years and is registered as a Century Farm. Jim Severt first opened the farm to the public for two weekends in October 2010. He hoped to share the past and present of farming with the current generation of children.
“I always felt that children and young people need to know more about agriculture,” he said at that time.
Last year, Grampa’s Farm attracted more than 6,000 visitors from all over the state.
Following last year’s run of Grampa’s Farm, Jim died on Nov. 26, 2014 following heart surgery. Before his passing, he wrote his own obituary in which he specifically mentioned the Grampa’s Farm event.
“Around the year of 2000, God planted a seed in my mind,” Jim wrote. “That seed soon grew into thoughts, ideas and visions that eventually became ‘Grampa’s Farm’ in 2010. It is our family’s fall event that invites other families to come out and experience a taste of rural living. It has been a wonderful labor of love.”