An 11-year-old business is rare to come by, even more so when it’s run by a high schooler. Senior Blake Mertens and his sister, Madison ‘23, have been running Janestead Farm-Pumpkin patch since they were just a few pumpkins high, but through work and business savvy, they have been able to grow their operation year after year.
“I started with my sister, we got a little patch of land, and started growing more pumpkins than we needed. So we started selling them,” Mertens said.
What started as a pretty simple process quickly got more and more complex as the Mertens siblings began expanding their variety of pumpkins, squash, and gourds.
“So, right now, we have three main suppliers: Harris Seeds, Brisbane Seeds, and Outstanding Seed Company. We get bids at the beginning of the year from different seed companies who want to work with us, and then we pick out from those what we think our favorites are,” Mertens said. “Me, my sister and our entire family, vote on it before we decide to buy them, and then those are the ones that go on the ground. This year, we voted on over 42 varieties.”
The different textures, colors, and shapes of pumpkins and squash are a big selling point of the Mertens’ patch and are something that customers rarely see.
“Well, we don’t, generally, we don’t get this kind of variety in Texas, so it’s actually, it’s been nice to come up here and to see the kind of variety that they’ve got,” Customer David Kluth said.
There are also plans to expand beyond just selling plant decorations. Currently, the shop is selling a couple of baked goods and other sweets, but that is something Madison wants to expand on. Blake also wants to add to the experience aspect of the Janestead farm, taking inspiration from other successful farms.
“There’s always been a plan for the future. I know my sister wants to put a bakery on this place eventually. The Little Farmer concept is also an idea for us. So I think we’ll keep getting bigger every year, and eventually it’ll turn into something very big,” Mertens said.
Not only is the farm turning a profit for Blake, but it’s also allowed him to learn valuable skills that he hopes to use in his future career.
“I want to go into ag business and ag sales, which this has helped a lot with. I also work for Blocks Greenhouse, and that’s helped too. They kind of can join together and make a really good way of learning selling, making money, and stuff like that,” Mertens said.
Despite 11 years of tradition, next year there will be a big shift for the Janestead farm as both Blake and Madison might be out of the house. Regardless, the Mertens family as a whole will work together to keep the patch going, and growing, strong.
“We have talked about what we will do after Blake graduates. It will be a lot of work, but we would like to continue growing and selling pumpkins. We have a lot of customers who return each year, and we would not want to see that end,” Blake and Madison’s mom, Kristen Mertens, said.
The pumpkin patch is on the tail end of the 2025 season, but can be visited at N8190 County Road A, Berlin, WI.
“It’s really nice, it’s clear that he enjoys doing this,” Kluth said.
