Johansen Farms: Pumpkin Outlook Stable (We Think)

It looks more like a day in November, when Bolingbrook's should already be closed for the winter, when Bolingbrook Patch caught up with the local business owners to preview their fall festival.

Cold rain was falling in hard pellets that hit the roofs of the tents outside the gift shop like a bullet storm.

But the preparation goes on. It can't stop. Soon, hundreds of families, classes on field trips and kids looking for Jack-O-Lanterns will be looking for that perfect pumpkin. 

Carol Johansen-Cremeens pulls up in her SUV and gets out of the car with a dog, who quickly runs inside for cover. She kicks off her flip flops before directinging a group of employees waiting for her under warm lights among half-full boxes of Halloween novelties.

She patiently answers questions before sitting down beside two men painting the ceiling bright red and clean white. She then takes a look at the rain.

“Weather is everything to us, in any season,” Johansen-Cremeens says. “Last year was excellent, but the year before we had 23 days of rain.”

What began as a farm stand from which Hans Johansen, her grandfather, sold vegetables and flowers in Lisle back in 1925, is today a thriving business that has grown into a greenhouse and garden center, which opens in spring; and a children’s zoo and pumpkin farm, that opens every year from Sept. 15 to Oct. 31 in .

Sept. 15 will be here before she knows it.

But this week, it’s all about getting ready. Fall is a busy season for her and they have already booked several school groups, some of which travel nearly three hours to visit.

Johansen-Cremeens is hoping the weather cooperates for this, their 29th annual fall celebration.

“All of us have different jobs,” Johansen-Cremeens says, speaking of her mother, Dorothy, and the three brothers who make up the farm’s operations. “The boys get everything prepared, building animal houses, painting, building new buildings.”

There are acres and acres of corn to be cut and tied around the perimeter of the zoo. The pavement needs to be repaved. Johansen-Cremeens, in particular, is in charge of making sure all of the Halloween products are brought out, priced and displayed.

And then, of course, there is the pumpkin crop.

Johansen-Cremeens admits the crop—perhaps the epicenter of the operation—is not one of her priorities.

She hasn’t heard of any disasters, but a shortage is not unheard of.

“We’ve had years where there were no pumpkins. We’ve had years when we trucked them in from New York,” she says.

The price of admission at Johansen is all inclusive. Customers don’t pay extra for hayrides, parking, jump castles or train rides.

Now their 86th year as a working farm, Johansen Farms knows something about weathering ups and downs.

Farming is an industry vulnerable to more than weather.

“The economy has effected every person and every business whether they want to admit it or not. We didn’t raise our prices again, we have a coupon online, because we know (visiting Johansen Farms) is a tradition. We still want people to be able to come and have good, clean entertainment,” she says.

So long as the weather permits, that shouldn't be a problem.

For a video slideshow of last year's fall festival, click .

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