Gene the Pumpkin Man’s legacy lives on at Evans Acres

Editor’s Note: This story is part of Momentum: The people and companies shaping what’s next, a weekly series that explores new ventures, founder support, and the resources powering entrepreneurship and small businesses across seven counties in Southwest Michigan. This project is sponsored by Southwest Michigan First.

Few things say October quite like a field filled with bright orange pumpkins. For kids, especially, a field of pumpkins is irresistible — seeing them up close, feeling their weight, and searching for the perfect one. For kids, there’s something irresistible about a field of pumpkins — seeing them up close, feeling their weight, and searching for the perfect one.

The late Gene Rhodes — better known as “Gene the Pumpkin Man” — understood that magic better than most. For 67 years, Rhodes ran his beloved pumpkin farm west of Kalamazoo, building a fall tradition that generations came to know and love. Rhodes died at 88 in December 2024, but his spirit — and his pumpkins — are back at the farm at 22637 Highway M-43 in Van Buren County, under new ownership, but still in the family.

On Oct. 1, the 30-acre farm reopened as Evans Acres Family Farm, owned and operated by a grandnephew of Rhodes, Steele Evans, and his wife Sadie. The couple has big plans to make the place even more enjoyable for visitors, but Steele emphasizes that Rhodes’s welcoming warmth will always be there.

For one thing, the pumpkin-orange paint everywhere on the property is staying. 

The Evanses had a ribbon-cutting ceremony on the morning of Oct. 1 to officially open Evans Acres. The morning was cool and overcast with occasional light rain, but many people showed up and the place quickly filled with many families and lots of children enthralled by the thousands of pumpkins. By the end of the day, about 350 people had visited.

The farm has been in Steele Evans’s family since 1885, when it was founded by his great-great-grandfather, and a barn that still stands was built. The farm produced hundreds of tons of pumpkins annually when Gene Rhodes operated it. However, Rhodes wasn’t a full-time farmer.  His “Pumpkin Man” enterprise was for his own joy, and he also had regular 40-hour-a-week jobs.

Private funding is financing the Evanses’ enterprise.  They acquired the property in September 2025.

“We want to be a place where people can come any time and slow down.  Family time especially is so precious, and it is kinda hard to come by quality time these days because everybody’s so busy,” says Sadie Evans.  “We’d love to be able to have that time available here. We want to be able to do that year-round.”

“We do always plan to do pumpkins, and we do always plan to represent the color orange for the rest of our lives. But we’re really trying to get away from the seasonal business model that Gene had. All of his sales for the entire year were in one month. We want people here all the time.”

For wintertime, she mentions sledding events and refreshments like hot chocolate.

Evans Acres already has a farm stand that will be open year-round. It offers eggs from the resident chickens, local honey and maple syrup, jams, Sadie’s crocheted little items, and occasionally her own baked goods on Fridays and Saturdays.

Last spring, eight baby goats arrived at the farm, and they are being included in the new activities. In July and August, the farm offered“Story Time With the Goats” for children, and every session sold out quickly, with more than 150 kids plus the accompanying adults participating.

The children heard a goat story, and then they got feed cups, entered the goat pen, fed them, petted them, and got a little lesson about goats.

“We’re looking to create more opportunities like ‘Story Time’ that are affordable; we charge $10 for that. Something that you can afford to bring your kids here and do these things and get them outside and run around and enjoy the fresh air and learn something new,” Sadie says.  “I was so surprised at how many children had come here and had never been to a farm. They had never seen a goat; they thought it was a sheep because they didn’t know a goat was an animal.”

Steele Evans says he wants more animals on the farm, and he talks of adding facilities such as a commercial kitchen. He is currently taking college courses to earn a degree in horticulture, and Sadie has only one semester before she earns a degree in early childhood education.

Both are 27 years old, and both joined the Air Force after graduating from high school, serving at Warren Air Force Base near Cheyenne, Wyo. They have two children, a son, 4, and a daughter, five months.

The farm’s website sums up the Evanses’ intentions:

“Everything we do is centered on connection. Connection between families, friends, and the farm itself. It’s the kind of place where kids can be kids, where traditions begin, and where small moments turn into lasting memories.”

The farm is open to the public every day but Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.