Farm to Porch

October 5, 2026

By Haley Banwart

By the time autumn arrives in Iowa, Kate Van Manen has already spent months thinking about pumpkins. 

It starts during the quiet of winter, when empty fields sit beneath a blanket of snow, waiting for another growing season to begin. While many Iowans are dreaming about warmer weather, Van Manen is planning next fall’s color palette — soft blue heirlooms, creamy white pumpkins, vibrant orange classics, deep green gourds and quirky, warty squash. 

“Usually, I wait for a big snowstorm around January or February, and that’s when I get out my seed catalogs and magazines to start putting orders together,” she says. 

Months later, those carefully selected seeds become more than 100 varieties of pumpkins and squash, growing across five acres on the Van Manen family farm near Kellogg. Some will find their way to self-serve stands located in nearby communities, but an increasing number are making a different journey altogether — from patch to porch. 

Through her business, VM & Co., Van Manen creates custom pumpkinscapes, transforming front porches into seasonal works of art. She’s the first to offer a dedicated porch-decorating service in central Iowa, giving homeowners a chance to celebrate the season while supporting Iowa agriculture in an unexpected way. 

How the Business Took Root 

Returning to rural Iowa wasn’t always part of Van Manen’s plan. Although she grew up on her family’s farm near Storm Lake, she imagined her future taking a different path. Agriculture had a way of calling her back. 

A degree in agricultural communications from Iowa State University led Van Manen to an internship with the Iowa Corn Growers Association. While helping coordinate an Iowa Food & Family Project farm tour, she met her husband, Jacob, whose family operation was one of the tour stops. 

Today, the couple are raising their three children just a quarter of a mile away from the Jasper County farm where Jacob grew up, which also raises corn, soybeans and Holstein cattle. Sweet corn has long been another important part of the operation — a seasonal business Jacob and his sister have been building for 20 years. 

The Van Manen’s pumpkin venture started as a fun side project a decade ago, and gradually evolved into a niche enterprise. Like the sweet corn business, it created another opportunity to diversify their operation. The challenge was that peak pumpkin season coincides with corn and soybean harvest. 

“Since Jacob is busy in the fields during the fall, it was up to me to decide what to do with our growing pumpkin business,” Van Manen says. “I recognized that, unlike sweet corn, pumpkins required a different marketing strategy. They’re more of a decorative crop, rather than a consumable one, so I would need to promote them differently.” 

In 2021, she opened her first self-serve stand on a hay rack near Interstate 80. The operation has since expanded to four self-serve stands, open Labor Day through Halloween, where travelers and neighboring community members can find a wide selection for every fall tradition. 

Planning the Patch 

Growing more than 100 pumpkin and squash varieties is equal parts strategy and experimentation. Each season, Van Manen curates a colorful array of different shapes, sizes and textures. From miniature pumpkins to classic oversized jack-o-lanterns, she plants tried-and-true varieties along with unique additions that often-become new favorites. 

One of Van Manen’s favorites is Marina di Chioggia, a blue-green heirloom pumpkin with a flat top and distinctive warty skin. “I can’t seem to ever find enough of them in the patch,” she shares. “Every year I find a new favorite variety to incorporate.” 

By late spring, the pumpkin and squash seeds begin making their way into the ground. Using a four-row planter, family members ride along and drop seeds into the soil by hand, rather than planting them in traditional mounds, so the rows don’t become overcrowded. 

“We don’t use GPS. It’s a manual process, but the kids love to get involved and help plant,” Van Manen shares. “It usually takes us one big day or two half days to plant all five acres.” 

By September, sprawling vines stretch across the field, making harvest its own carefully organized operation — and a bit of a treasure hunt. As the plants grow together, distinguishing one variety from another isn’t always easy. To stay organized while planting, Van Manen organizes the 100 varieties into different categories to keep like kinds together throughout the patch - Traditional, Extra Large, Stackers, Specialty, Warty, Small, Mini and Gourds are a few of the categories.  

Harvest happens three times a week with a crew of three to four people loading pumpkins onto a truck and trailer that travel designated paths through the field. Unlike sweet corn, which is picked every morning around 6 a.m., pumpkins offer a little more flexibility. Evening harvests fit around the family’s schedule. This allows the self-serve stands and the porch-decorating business to stay well stocked throughout the season.

Even weed management reflects Van Manen’s willingness to try new ideas. Rather than relying solely on traditional methods, she plants rye between pumpkin rows as a natural way to suppress weeds — an approach she discovered through an online farming community.

The Art of Pumpkinscapes  

As the Van Manen’s pumpkins gained popularity, Kate noticed another trend taking root: pumpkinscapes.

Inspired by elaborate porch displays she saw online, she wondered whether Iowa homeowners would embrace a service that brought locally grown pumpkins directly to their front doors. Last fall, she brought the concept to life, launching VM & Co.’s porch-decorating business while balancing life with a newborn at home and a harvest season in full swing.

Customers choose a decorating package, then complete a questionnaire about their home’s layout, sun exposure and decorating preferences before installation day. From there, Van Manen handles the rest.

Each installation starts with a clean slate. Van Manen sweeps away leaves, unloads pumpkins, plants and accessories, then begins layering textures, colors and heights until the porch feels complete. Even then, she often finds herself making last-minute adjustment.

“Having the discipline to stop can be a challenge,” she says. “I love the design part so much. It’s fulfilling to grow the pumpkins and then get to share them with other people to enjoy.”

A Year-Round Vision

The success of pumpkinscapes sparked another idea. If homeowners want their porches decorated in the fall, why not offer the service year-round? 

This year, VM & Co. expanded into year-round porch memberships, refreshing outdoor spaces every three months with locally sourced seasonal décor. Spring and summer feature flowers and colorful container gardens from local greenhouses. Fall showcases Iowa-grown pumpkins, while winter incorporates evergreen porch pots with greenery sourced from Kate’s sister-in-law’s Christmas tree farm.

For Van Manen, it’s another way to strengthen connections between Iowa farms and the communities they serve. She enjoys hearing from homeowners after they return home to a freshly decorated porch. 

“It’s fun to be part of that excitement and bring local goods and Iowa farming directly to their door,”she shares. “As a younger family in farming, we’re lucky to be doing it full time. Having niches like the pumpkin patch creates another source of revenue, allowing us to diversify and add value back to Iowa’s economy.”