Early History
In the 1950's my grandparents,George and Lillian Lorenz, bought this land from a family member and started building their house on it within a couple years. After finishing the house they began working on the yard pushing back the slough and grasslands. They put in a huge vegetable garden and strawberry bed and planted apple trees. A couple years later they added another acre for sweet corn. The vegetables and produce were canned,pickled, jammed and always shared with family members and neighbors. They sold strawberries to customers by the pint and ran a pick your own operations for a couple years.
Lorenz Antiques opened in the 1960's when Grandpa converted their garage into an antique shop. Being avid collectors and auction goers their business flourished.
Grandma also sold vegetables to customers. She sold winter and summer squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes , red popcorn and also her favorite flower, gladioulus. At one time Grandma grew thousands of gladiolus each summer. Her other favorite flowers were four o'clocks, zinnia's, nasturtiums, begonias and impatiens.
Grandpa was an avid bird watcher and early conservationist. He planted berry producing trees and honeysuckle all over his property to draw in and feed the birds. Also he kept bird feeders and bird baths all over his back yard. He was always mixing up a batch of homemade suet for the woodpeckers and downy's. On the southwest corner of the property he dug out a big pond to provide a water source to his birds and other wildlife, surrounding it with trees and shrubs for nesting.
In the 80's Grandpa's health detiorated due to cancer. He closed the antique shop and sold out his collection in one big auction in 1990. During that same period Grandpa had became obsessed with daylilly's. He planted half an acre of daylilly's where their vegetable garden used to be. Everybody in our family has dug up pieces of the daylilly's and now bless yards all over the state.
After Grandpa passed away, Grandpa continued to live in her home. She outletted the garden to a member of the Spencer Farmer's Market who grew tomatoes and onions.
In 2002, Bruce and I and our two kids decided to take over the garden. We planted mostly vegetables and flowers. We had some open room so we planted a couple bargain packs of jack o lanterns that we had bought at Ace Hardware for 99 cents.
Our first pumpkin patch was a weedy mess but it produced enough pumpkins that everybody in the family, neighbors and anybody who stopped by got to take them home. It was instant love for me. After working at Del's Garden Center a couple years before I had been a flower grower and plant lover but after picking pumpkins I was hooked.
The next spring we decided to plant an acre of jack o lantern pumpkins plus another acre with 88 tomato plants, 68 pepper plants, 6- 80 foot rows of potatoes, zuchini, 88 hills of cucumber, patty pan squash, butternut squash, birdhouse gourds and some mixed ornamental gourds and mini pumpkins.
Wow..what a learning experience. To this day the kids still say that hot summer picking cucumbers was one to remember(or maybe one to forget) Once the cucumbers started producing our house turned into a pickle factory. Being that I had never tried making homemade pickles...I relied on my grandma to teach me the basics. She was the champion pickle maker in our family. Everybody got pickles that year from us.
And then came the tomato and peppers and potatoes. We pulled gallon buckets of tomato out of our garden every day and I started selling them to coworkers and giving them away to family and neighbors.
The pumpkins were also beginning to ripen and we had a really good crop of them on the vines. We hashed around the idea of selling them on the corner at Spencer or taking them to the farmer's market. But eventually we realized grandpa and grandma had made a business for themselves that lasted over 30 years and being on Highway 18 we knew the location was good.
Bruce came up with the name of Hawk Valley Garden. A mile west of here is a state owned property called Hawk Valley Conservation Area and we liked the idea of staying with a nature theme due to my grandpa's love of birds. We talked with my grandpa and brought up the idea of opening a pumpkin stand and she was all for it. In late August of 2003 our first Hawk Valley Garden sign went up where the old Lorenz Antique shop sign had always been.
On September 13, 2003 Hawk Valley Garden opened with 6 pallets of pumpkins, 3 bushel baskets of gourds, 2 bushel baskets of potatoes, couple flat boxes full of onions and some white patty pan squash.
I had bought a 12 ft by 12 ft green awning tent at Walmart and tried putting it up myself that first morning since Bruce was goose hunting. Thank God for my dad showing up and helping me as I was bawling and ready to call it quits.Grandma fed me coffee and a doughnut (to calm me) and dad got the frame of tent put together and got the tent up. We put a table under it and a couple chairs. Grandma came out and sat with me under the tent and talked about her past days of selling vegetables so it was a good time. We used Grandpa's old tackle box for a money box and opened up shop. We had a few customers that day...think we made about $100 and we were thrilled with that.We sold out of everything in 2 weeks.
Our second year on opening day we had 36 pallets of pumpkins surrounding our green tent including 6 pallets of bright red cinderella pumpkins.
Our cinderella's sold out in one week.
3 weeks later we were completely sold out.
In 2005 we expanded.....
After seeing all the fun we were having and helping us the first two years, my dad began growing pumpkins on his 15 acre farm. September arrived and we had more pumpkins than had ever dreamed. It was our most successful year yet and each year Hawk Valley Garden's popularity has continued to topple our wildest expectations.
Over the last 7 years we have learned from experience and mistakes. We have fretted thru many cold springs and stormy summers and bounced back from hail storms, cucumber beetles and even stupid vandals. From our early days and grandparent's history we have tried to keep our pumpkin stand very simple and keep with the concept that it's all about the pumpkin here. It's all about the family too. We couldn't do what we do without the hard work and support of our kids, parents,sisters and brothers, nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles, cousins, friends and most importantly... our grandparents.
Three years ago grandma passed away. She had gotten sick in early May and was in the hospital for heart failure. She was placed in a nursing home leaving the place empty. I didn't want to grow anything that spring but she wouldn't hear of it. So we planted our crops and prayed she would get better. In August grandma passed away in the nursing home but before she did Bruce and I bought the acreage from her which made her so happy even in her sickness. It was a sad fall season especially with Bruce and me and the kids moving into my grandparents house. Everything here reminded all of us of her and grandpa. But life goes one and that is what she wanted. Hawk Valley Garden's roots lie with her and grandpa and we will always be grateful for being the chosen ones to live here. We miss them both very much.
We are thankful for meeting hundreds of new friends each year and seeing the same ones come back year after year. Our customers have come from all over this country and even beyond.We are grateful for anybody that stops even if they don't buy anything as many share funny stories, life experiences and their love of fall and pumpkins.
We appreciate all of it and look forward to many more years.
Thanks
Bruce, Sue, Liz and Zach Loring
Hawk Valley Garden
2670 Highway 18
Spencer, Iowa 51301
Ph# 712-363-1587
Email- hawkvalleygarden@yahoo.com
Contact Bruce or Sue Loring
with any questions or orders.
Thanks!
In the 1950's my grandparents,George and Lillian Lorenz, bought this land from a family member and started building their house on it within a couple years. After finishing the house they began working on the yard pushing back the slough and grasslands. They put in a huge vegetable garden and strawberry bed and planted apple trees. A couple years later they added another acre for sweet corn. The vegetables and produce were canned,pickled, jammed and always shared with family members and neighbors. They sold strawberries to customers by the pint and ran a pick your own operations for a couple years.
Lorenz Antiques opened in the 1960's when Grandpa converted their garage into an antique shop. Being avid collectors and auction goers their business flourished.
Grandma also sold vegetables to customers. She sold winter and summer squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes , red popcorn and also her favorite flower, gladioulus. At one time Grandma grew thousands of gladiolus each summer. Her other favorite flowers were four o'clocks, zinnia's, nasturtiums, begonias and impatiens.
Grandpa was an avid bird watcher and early conservationist. He planted berry producing trees and honeysuckle all over his property to draw in and feed the birds. Also he kept bird feeders and bird baths all over his back yard. He was always mixing up a batch of homemade suet for the woodpeckers and downy's. On the southwest corner of the property he dug out a big pond to provide a water source to his birds and other wildlife, surrounding it with trees and shrubs for nesting.
In the 80's Grandpa's health detiorated due to cancer. He closed the antique shop and sold out his collection in one big auction in 1990. During that same period Grandpa had became obsessed with daylilly's. He planted half an acre of daylilly's where their vegetable garden used to be. Everybody in our family has dug up pieces of the daylilly's and now bless yards all over the state.
After Grandpa passed away, Grandpa continued to live in her home. She outletted the garden to a member of the Spencer Farmer's Market who grew tomatoes and onions.
In 2002, Bruce and I and our two kids decided to take over the garden. We planted mostly vegetables and flowers. We had some open room so we planted a couple bargain packs of jack o lanterns that we had bought at Ace Hardware for 99 cents.
Our first pumpkin patch was a weedy mess but it produced enough pumpkins that everybody in the family, neighbors and anybody who stopped by got to take them home. It was instant love for me. After working at Del's Garden Center a couple years before I had been a flower grower and plant lover but after picking pumpkins I was hooked.
The next spring we decided to plant an acre of jack o lantern pumpkins plus another acre with 88 tomato plants, 68 pepper plants, 6- 80 foot rows of potatoes, zuchini, 88 hills of cucumber, patty pan squash, butternut squash, birdhouse gourds and some mixed ornamental gourds and mini pumpkins.
Wow..what a learning experience. To this day the kids still say that hot summer picking cucumbers was one to remember(or maybe one to forget) Once the cucumbers started producing our house turned into a pickle factory. Being that I had never tried making homemade pickles...I relied on my grandma to teach me the basics. She was the champion pickle maker in our family. Everybody got pickles that year from us.
And then came the tomato and peppers and potatoes. We pulled gallon buckets of tomato out of our garden every day and I started selling them to coworkers and giving them away to family and neighbors.
The pumpkins were also beginning to ripen and we had a really good crop of them on the vines. We hashed around the idea of selling them on the corner at Spencer or taking them to the farmer's market. But eventually we realized grandpa and grandma had made a business for themselves that lasted over 30 years and being on Highway 18 we knew the location was good.
Bruce came up with the name of Hawk Valley Garden. A mile west of here is a state owned property called Hawk Valley Conservation Area and we liked the idea of staying with a nature theme due to my grandpa's love of birds. We talked with my grandpa and brought up the idea of opening a pumpkin stand and she was all for it. In late August of 2003 our first Hawk Valley Garden sign went up where the old Lorenz Antique shop sign had always been.
On September 13, 2003 Hawk Valley Garden opened with 6 pallets of pumpkins, 3 bushel baskets of gourds, 2 bushel baskets of potatoes, couple flat boxes full of onions and some white patty pan squash.
I had bought a 12 ft by 12 ft green awning tent at Walmart and tried putting it up myself that first morning since Bruce was goose hunting. Thank God for my dad showing up and helping me as I was bawling and ready to call it quits.Grandma fed me coffee and a doughnut (to calm me) and dad got the frame of tent put together and got the tent up. We put a table under it and a couple chairs. Grandma came out and sat with me under the tent and talked about her past days of selling vegetables so it was a good time. We used Grandpa's old tackle box for a money box and opened up shop. We had a few customers that day...think we made about $100 and we were thrilled with that.
We sold out of everything we grew in 3 weeks. Also thru a friend we started buying her son's excess squash and sold all of his too. We knew we had a market and the real planning began. My sister and I went to Decorah Iowa to the Seed Saver's Exchange.If you are ever visiting northeast Iowa I highly recommend visiting their shop and property.
It was a turning experience for me as I loved the whole concept of concentrating on heirloom varieties
At Seed Saver's I bought seeds for Cinderella pumpkins, crookneck squash, striped patty pan squash, cheese pumpkins, banana squash, broomcorn and indian corn. We also began scouring seed catalogs for different varieties.
Baker Seeds also has a HUGE selection fo heirloom seeds and they became our other seed supplier.
That summer we concentrated more on pumpkins and squash. We didn't grow any cucumbers which thrilled the kids. We made a smaller vegetable garden closer to the house for grandma and only planted 6 tomato and pepper plants.
We grew two acres of pumpkins, squash, gourds, indian corn, broom corn and two long rows of sunflowers and orange cosmos at Grandma's request.
Our second year on opening day we had 36 pallets of pumpkins surrounding our green tent including 6 pallets of bright red cinderella pumpkins.
Our cinderella's sold out in one week.
3 weeks later we were completely sold out.
In 2005 we expanded.....
After seeing all the fun we were having and helping us the first two years, my dad began growing pumpkins on his 15 acre farm. Dad concentrated on the regular jack o lanterns and specialty pumpkins and my mom decided to grow birdhouse gourds, snake gourds, mini and big bottle gourds, and ornamental gourds. That year we grew our first peanut pumpkins, triamble pumpkins, marina di chiogga's, fairytale pumpkins, green and white cushaws, lakota squash and many other heirloom varieties.
September arrived and we had more pumpkins than had ever dreamed. Dad's crops turned out great and later when mom's gourds finally turned we had huge numbers of green gourds to sell. We opened the first day of the Clay County Fair as we do each year and by October 1 we were sold out of pumpkins. We ended becoming buyers at that point and began buying from neighbors and friends to extend our season. It was our most successful year yet and each year Hawk Valley Garden's popularity has continued to topple our wildest expectations.
Over the last 7 years we have learned from experience and mistakes. We have fretted thru many cold springs and stormy summers and bounced back from hail storms, cucumber beetles and even stupid vandals. From our early days and grandparent's history we have tried to keep our pumpkin stand very simple and keep with the concept that it's all about the pumpkin here. It's all about the family too. We couldn't do what we do without the hard work and support of our kids, parents,sisters and brothers, nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles, cousins, friends and most importantly... our grandparents.
Three years ago grandma passed away. She had gotten sick in early May and was in the hospital for heart failure. She was placed in a nursing home leaving the place empty. I didn't want to grow anything that spring but she wouldn't hear of it. So we planted our crops and prayed she would get better. In August grandma passed away in the nursing home but before she did Bruce and I bought the acreage from her which made her so happy even in her sickness. It was a sad fall season especially with Bruce and me and the kids moving into my grandparents house. Everything here reminded all of us of her and grandpa. But life goes one and that is what she wanted. Hawk Valley Garden's roots lie with her and grandpa and we will always be grateful for being the chosen ones to live here. We miss them both very much.
The last couple years things have changed. Our kids have grown as has our business. Even though Liz moved out she still runs the pumpkin stand for us most daytime hours and does lots of painting and cleaning duties. Zach and his friends have been our muscle carrying pumpkins to customer's car. He is heading to college this fall and will miss his first pumpkin season. It will be a tough one for us with him gone. But one thing over the years the kids have helped us so much ....with spring planting, picking and cleaning...even though they still refuse to hoe weeds. Last year we had over 125 varieties of pumpkins, gourds and squash and the kids can identify them to customers so they have learned a lot as have we.
We are thankful for meeting hundreds of new friends each year and seeing the same ones come back year after year. Our customers have come from all over this country and even beyond.We are grateful for anybody that stops even if they don't buy anything as many share funny stories, life experiences and their love of fall and pumpkins.
We appreciate all of it and look forward to many more years.
Thanks
Bruce, Sue, Liz and Zach Loring