Farmer forced to close Idaho’s largest pumpkin patch. What Albertson family has planned
Until recently, Twin Oaks Farms in Eagle billed itself as the largest pumpkin patch in Idaho. It was the last working farm on Eagle Road.
Locals would stop by to claim one of the 120,000 pumpkins grown each year as their own. But after decades of leasing the land, farmer Jeff Smith and business partner James Reidenbaugh closed up shop after the owner sold the property.
Now, the Albertson family’s real estate company has purchased the land and has plans for it.
“We miss everybody,” Smith told the Idaho Statesman in a phone interview. “It’s such a lonely October. I don’t know what to do, if you want to know the truth.”
The 100-acre pumpkin patch was part of a 192-acre farm at 3650 N. Eagle Road was purchased in 2020 by Alscott Real Estate, a company owned by members of the Albertson family, founders of the Albertsons grocery store chain. They hope to turn it into a rural subdivision with about 30 lots on which people could build houses.
The Twin Oaks owners had leased the land from the Cimino family for 35 years. The farmers announced on Oct. 21 that they would not be reopening for pumpkin-patch lovers this fall.
Treasure Valley farmland disappearing
Upon hearing the news, many of the farm’s 9,000 Facebook followers commented that a visit to Twin Oaks had been a longstanding tradition for their families. It saw 30,000 visitors annually, according to Smith.
“I can honestly tell you that thousands of people have called to say how sad they are about this,” Smith said.
The farm offered a variety of activities each autumn, including a corn maze, hay rides, a haunted house and the Tater Dash Mud Run. Reidenbaugh and Smith ran a number of educational programs, including farm and youth hunting education for children and teenagers.
On top of the fall festivities, it was a working farm with a variety of animals, including his distinctive Highland cattle, a shaggy breed that originated from Scotland. Twin Oaks supplied pumpkins, corn and potatoes to Albertsons grocery stores.
Smith and Reidenbaugh said they were dismayed to find out Cimino had sold the property to a development company.
“It’s been farmland since 1902,” Smith said.
Albertsons family imagines ‘dream community’
Brian Scott, vice president of Alscott Real Estate, said the subdivision’s lots would be spaced out to no more than one parcel for every five acres. He plans to call it the Rocking A Ranch Subdivision.
“It’s the family brand and a name from generations back in my family when we had a cattle ranch was called the Rocking A,” Scott said. “So we’ve tried to kind of tip our hat to our family heritage here in Idaho.”
Scott sees the land as an opportunity to build his “dream community.” He plans to live there. He said the land will maintain its rural character.
“I was trying to find a place for my family to live, and I couldn’t find anything that really was exactly what we’re looking for,” Scott said. “We like to be out in the country and have a little bit slower and quieter pace of life. We like to work with the land and get our jeans and our fingers dirty. So this gives us a chance to do that.”
The project is still in its earliest stages. The land is located in unincorporated Ada County but is part of Eagle’s area of impact — the unincorporated county lands outside city limits that cities plan eventually to annex. Scott is considering asking Eagle to annex the property. Alscott Real Estate has requested a first meeting with Eagle city planners.
Pumpkin farmers plan next venture
Smith and Reidenbaugh are holding on to the slim hope that Scott will change his mind. But for now, they have begun work to open a new business renting out tepee tents along a secluded 16-acre stretch of the Payette River in Garden Valley. They hope to open Teepees by the River soon to reservations for this spring.
The tepees will have 225 square feet and comfortably fit up to six people, according to the owners. Each site will have its own shower, firepit, benches, hammock, camp stove, hibachi grill and wash basin.
