Amid rows of pumpkins at a Niagara-on-the-Lake farm, 12-year-old Ianto Welch is running his own fall business — one built on hard work in the field, community support and a college fund to show for it.
Pumpkin season kicks off Saturday at Front Step Farms Inc., 855 Line 1 Rd., open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Pumpkins are priced between $3 and $7, cash preferred, with Welch greeting customers most weekends.
After trying it out last year with help from his family, the Grade 8 student is now largely running the patch on his own and says he may keep it going year after year.
Over the summer, he spent about an hour a day tending the field at the farm, where his mom, Heather Sippel, works.
“Just selling pumpkins for people to have — maybe carve them, get the seeds, roast them, maybe turn them into pumpkin pie,” Welch said.
The young grower earned $2,000 last year, all of it put into savings for college. Although he expects a smaller yield this fall after long stretches without rain, he plans to save this year’s earnings, too.
He began planting in mid-June and set his own prices: $3 for a small pumpkin, $5 for a medium and $7 for a large.
The work has been “absolutely” hard, he said, adding he works on the patch “every day she’s at work and I’m not at school.”
For his mom, who works at the farm daily, the project has been transformative.
“It’s gotten him connected to the community a lot more than what just school would normally bring,” Sippel said. “It’s great to see him go from basically sitting, playing video games on his off time, to interacting with nature.”
She added that Welch has weathered more challenges than most kids his age, after losing his father just before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“To see him bounce back from what he was beforehand has just been amazing,” she said.
Farmer Michael Watson, originally from NOTL, founded Front Step Farms, Inc. with his wife Sukyi Finn in Vaughan in 2005, added Virgil properties in 2014 and 2020, and made Line 1 Road the home farm in 2022.
He offered Welch the chance to take on the patch.
He and Sippel connected after Watson posted a TikTok challenging people to try farm work. A former grocery retail worker from Niagara Falls, Sippel said she was frustrated by how disconnected many people had become from food sources and decided to take him up on it.
Soon after, she joined the farm — Welch later took on the pumpkins. “Mike’s been a great help,” she said.
Watson said his aim is to bring in people who may not have a farming background but show the work ethic to learn. By giving them space on his land, he hopes to create opportunities for new farmers to thrive while allowing him and his wife to eventually step back from the day-to-day.
The patch is 100 per cent Welch’s. “No proceeds or anything. We’ve all kind-of pitched in,” said Watson.
There was plenty of land that wasn’t being used and when Sippel suggested it might be good for her son to spend time at the farm during the summer, he said he was happy to make it work.
Watson said the farm used to grow pumpkins every year and became a place where families returned season after season, where he watched children grow from strollers to teenagers.
This year’s heat has meant an earlier harvest and likely lower returns for Welch, compared to last year’s cooler, wetter summer that produced a good crop. Still, it’s “incredible how far he’s come along this past year,” Watson said.
Watson knew the patch would be just enough work for Welch and said the planting and harvest would fit neatly around his school schedule, too.
“If he got interested — then, you know, maybe it’s Ianto’s Market Garden,” said Watson.
Watson said he looks forward to seeing Welch engage with the NOTL community again this fall — something he called “fantastic to see” last year.
