ENTRY 002 • The One With All the Flags

2026 • Merkel, Texas

Turns out, the first thing you grow when you're starting a pumpkin patch isn't a pumpkin.

It's a field full of flags.

Before we could plant anything, we had to take an empty piece of ground and figure out how the pumpkin patch was actually going to fit on it.

So we measured.

And measured some more.

Then came the string, stakes, flags, row spacing, irrigation plans...and plenty of standing in the middle of the field trying to decide whether something looked right.

It Didn't Look Like Much Yet

If you had driven by that day, you probably wouldn't have thought:

"There's a pumpkin patch."

You would've seen dirt and a bunch of little flags.

But I could finally see it.

Every flag represented part of the plan we'd been talking about.

I could start imagining vines covering the bare ground. Pumpkins sitting between the rows. Families walking through trying to decide which one was coming home with them.

For the first time, the pumpkin patch wasn't just an idea anymore.

It had a place.

Turns Out the Harvest Starts Here

I'm already learning that farming has a lot of work nobody sees.

Everybody gets excited about the pumpkin.

Nobody takes a picture with the measuring tape. 😂

But you don't get one without the other.

Our words at HC Heritage Farm are inspired by Hosea 10:12:

SOW. SEEK. HARVEST.

It's easy to get excited about the harvest.

But first, you prepare the ground.

Someday, I hope this field looks completely different.

And when it does, I'm going to be glad we have pictures from the one with all the flags.

See you in the patch! 🎃— Taden