Family farm opens its golden anniversary season, carrying a half-century of pumpkins, memories and generations forward in the heart of a city that grew up around it
Long before many of the neighborhoods, shopping centers and busy roadways that define modern-day Folsom were here, there was a little farm along Oak Avenue where a family was putting down roots of its own. Fifty years later, the city around it has changed dramatically, but the farm remains.
Zittel Farms officially opened its gates for its 50th year this past week, welcoming families back for another autumn of pumpkins, wagons, farm animals, family photographs and traditions that have been passed from one generation to the next. The milestone season got underway Friday, and this weekend the longtime family farm is once again coming alive in the heart of a city that has grown up around it.
This year carries a little more meaning. It has been 50 years since Roger and Gail Zittel purchased the historic property in 1976, beginning a family story that would become intertwined with Folsom’s own and preserving a place that, for countless local families, has become synonymous with fall.
Five decades later, Zittel Farms isn’t simply a place to find a pumpkin. It is a Folsom tradition, and this weekend another generation of families is walking through its gates to carry it forward.
There are adults visiting the farm today who first came as children holding their parents’ hands. Years later, they returned pushing strollers or pulling wagons filled with children of their own, and some families have now reached the point where grandparents are making the trip alongside grandchildren.
Monica Collins knows that cycle well. For her family, returning to Zittel Farms wasn’t something that had to be decided when she became a parent; it was simply something they continued doing.
“Our parents brought us here when we were young, so when we had children there was never really a question about whether we would bring them. It’s just part of fall for our family,” Collins said. “You go to Zittel Farms, pick out your pumpkins and take the pictures. That’s what October in Folsom means to us.”
Those pictures have become their own kind of history. Photographs taken beside pumpkins and familiar farm wagons decades ago are followed years later by new photographs in many of the same places, only the children have grown and another generation is now standing in front of the camera.
That is what 50 years looks like at Zittel Farms. The pumpkins are different every autumn and the faces in the family photographs change, but year after year families return to the same little piece of Folsom to do it all over again.
The tradition began in a much different city. Roger and Gail Zittel purchased the historic farm property in 1976, when Folsom was still a small community with considerably more open land and agricultural roots visible around it.
The property was in disrepair when they acquired it from the Harris family, and Roger prevailed over higher bids from developers after promising that he would rehabilitate the property and continue working it as a farm for as long as he could. Half a century later, that promise has proven remarkably durable.
Roger brought farming roots of his own to Folsom. Born in Eden, New York, in 1941, he came from a family that had farmed vegetables for generations. After attending Rutgers University and training at a Lutheran seminary, his first pastoral call brought him west to Folsom, where he served at Mount Olive Lutheran Church before becoming the first manager of the Folsom Chamber of Commerce in 1974.
Roger would hold that position for 21 years during a period of tremendous growth and change in the city. The pumpkin patch followed, with the farm’s annual pumpkin tradition taking shape around 1980 and eventually growing from the Zittel family’s working farm into a familiar part of fall for generations of Folsom residents.
Roger has previously recalled just how different the community was when the family arrived.
“There were 4,000 people in Folsom at the time we came. You won’t believe it, there was one stop sign, simpler times. Everyone knew each other, which was nice,” he told Folsom Times in an earlier interview.
Those simpler surroundings eventually gave way to a much larger and busier city, and the Zittels became part of that story as well. Roger spent decades promoting local businesses and the community through the Chamber of Commerce, while Gail served seven years on the Folsom Planning Commission and helped shape the city’s General Plan during a pivotal period of growth.
Their involvement extended into recreation and community organizations, and the Zittel name eventually became familiar well beyond the farm itself. Zittel Drive carries the family name, while the outdoor amphitheater in Historic Folsom was named the Zittel Family Amphitheater in recognition of the family’s contributions to the community.
Yet perhaps the family’s most personal legacy remains the property at 6781 Oak Ave. Zittel Farms describes itself today as Folsom’s last working agricultural farm, a distinction that has become increasingly meaningful as open land around the city has steadily given way to homes, businesses and roads.
Arjun Patel said that contrast is part of what keeps his family coming back. Even as the surroundings have changed, he said stepping onto the property still offers something increasingly difficult to find in the middle of modern Folsom.
“What makes it special is that it really hasn’t lost that family-farm feeling even though the city has grown all around it,” Patel said. “Our kids get excited about coming here, but I think the adults enjoy it just as much because there are so many memories attached to this place.”
That family-farm feeling is evident throughout the property during pumpkin season. Pumpkins of different shapes, sizes and colors fill the grounds, children visit the animals, families pull wagons and cameras come out in many of the same places they have for years.
The antiques scattered throughout the property add another connection to the past. Roger and Gail’s longtime appreciation for Amish antiques brought pieces including the Cinderella wagon and sheepherder’s wagon to the farm, and over the years those pieces have become familiar backdrops for countless family photographs.
The farm also continues introducing new generations of children to agriculture through its fall educational tours. School groups can learn about farm life, meet the animals, take a hayride and choose a pumpkin to bring home, giving children a hands-on connection to agriculture that has become increasingly difficult to find within a modern suburban city.
While the familiar traditions remain, Zittel Farms is adding a series of special events to its 50th-year season. Following this weekend’s opening, the October calendar begins with a pie contest Oct. 3, when home bakers are invited to bring their creations, from traditional apple pies to seasonal pumpkin recipes. Entries are to be dropped off by 4 p.m., with judging beginning at 5 p.m.
On Oct. 10, the farm will host a costume contest beginning at 4 p.m., with different age categories and prizes. Organizers are keeping the event friendly for younger visitors and are asking participants to leave ghosts, witches and scary costumes at home.
Pink Day follows Oct. 17 and will continue throughout the day, honoring survivors, remembering loved ones and supporting the fight for a cure. Visitors are encouraged to wear pink, and the farm plans to have special pink Zittel Farms pumpkins available for sale.
The creativity continues Oct. 24 with a pumpkin painting contest. Participants can bring a painted pumpkin purchased from Zittel Farms and enter it for judging, with different age categories and prizes. Entries are due by 4 p.m., followed by judging at 5 p.m.
Fittingly, the farm’s October event calendar concludes on Halloween. A pumpkin carving contest is scheduled for Oct. 31, inviting visitors to purchase their pumpkin at Zittel Farms, bring their carving tools and see what they can create. Entries are again due by 4 p.m., with judging beginning at 5 p.m.
The added activities give families a few more reasons to return during the season, but the heart of Zittel Farms remains much as it has for decades. It’s about arriving together, grabbing a wagon and wandering through the pumpkins until someone finds the one that is just right.
It’s about children getting excited over the animals and parents trying to get everyone to look at the camera at the same time. It’s about photographs that may seem ordinary when they’re taken but become considerably more meaningful 10, 20 or 30 years later, and about a family that kept a farm alive while a city grew around it.
That contrast seems especially fitting in 2026. Folsom is celebrating its 80th anniversary as an incorporated city this year, and the Zittel family has been on its Oak Avenue property for 50 of those years, meaning the farm has been part of nearly two-thirds of the city’s incorporated history.
The landscape around it bears little resemblance to what Roger and Gail encountered in 1976. Thousands of homes have been built, major employers arrived, shopping centers opened, roads expanded and the city’s population multiplied many times over, yet the farm continued welcoming families each fall.
Mark Davis said the significance of the milestone becomes clearer when viewed not simply in years, but in generations. Few places in a growing city remain familiar enough for several generations of the same family to share essentially the same experience.
“Fifty years is pretty incredible when you think about how much Folsom has changed during that time,” Davis said. “There aren’t many places where you can say your grandparents, your parents, you and your children all shared the same tradition. That’s what makes this place special.”
Younger generations of the Zittel family have increasingly taken on the work of keeping the operation going, continuing something that began with Roger and Gail’s decision to preserve an aging piece of agricultural property rather than watch it disappear to development. Fifty years later, it remains not only a piece of their family’s history but a piece of Folsom’s history as well.
That continuity may be one of the reasons Zittel Farms means so much to longtime residents. Plenty of places sell pumpkins each fall, but far fewer come with decades of family memories attached to them.
For some visitors walking through the gates this weekend, a trip to Zittel Farms may be their children’s first. For others, it may be another entry in a family album that already contains decades of visits to the same place, continuing a tradition that began before some of today’s parents were even born.
And when pumpkin season ends, another familiar transformation isn’t far behind. After Thanksgiving, pumpkins traditionally give way to Christmas trees and families return to the farm once again as one Folsom tradition rolls into another.
For now, though, it’s pumpkin time, and the farm is open for another season. Zittel Farms is located at 6781 Oak Ave. in Folsom and, according to the farm’s 2026 fall schedule, is open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.
Fifty years after Roger and Gail Zittel chose to save an old farm and make it their family’s home, the gates are open for another autumn. The pumpkins are out, the wagons are ready and another generation of families is arriving, carrying forward a tradition that has endured while nearly everything around it has changed.
Much of Folsom looks different than it did in 1976, and the community has grown far beyond what anyone standing on that farm 50 years ago could have imagined. Yet on Oak Avenue, one of the city’s most familiar fall traditions is still growing right along with it.
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