Everything you need to know for the Peaceful Pumpkin Patch
Thank you for your reservation! We are so excited to welcome you.
Please take a few minutes to read through this email carefully and share it with everyone in your party. We want you to arrive prepared, comfortable and ready to have the very best time at this little fall experience we’ve created for our community.
The Peaceful Pumpkin Patch is an intentionally limited-by-design preseason event, giving a small number of families the opportunity to enjoy the farm while we’re still hard at work preparing The Old Citrus Estate for our full seasonal opening.
This isn’t meant to feel like a busy fall festival.
Our hope is that you’ll slow down, wander, breathe deeply, make some memories and enjoy autumn at your own pace.
YOUR RESERVATION + YOUR PUMPKIN
Every paid guest gets to choose one pumpkin to take home.
Please bring a PRINTED COPY OF YOUR TICKET with you. Your printed ticket must show the total number of people included in your reservation and will be checked at entry.
Because this is an intentionally limited-capacity preseason experience, tickets are nonrefundable and cannot be transferred to another date or time slot. Please do not bring additional unregistered guests, as the number of families welcomed during each time is intentionally kept small.
TWO HOURS TO SLOW DOWN
Your reservation gives you a two-hour time block to enjoy the farm.
But please don’t race to get here!
If you arrive after the beginning of your reservation, that’s completely okay. Your scheduled ending time simply remains the same, which means you’ll have a little less time on the farm.
We intentionally allow only a few families during each time block so that once you’re here, you don’t have to rush.
We’ve included a farm map to help you find your way around and discover the different areas you’re welcome to enjoy.
Take the pictures. Wander the patch. Visit the animals. Sit for a while. Bring a picnic. Let the kids play. Enjoy a coffee.
There’s nowhere you need to hurry to next. That’s the whole idea.
THE PEACEFUL PUMPKIN PATCH
Take your time exploring the patch, enjoying the fall displays, taking pictures and finding the pumpkin you’d like to bring home.
Please close and securely latch the Pumpkin Patch gate behind you every time you enter or leave, especially with little ones enjoying the area.
Remember that you’re visiting a real, working farm. Please remain in designated guest areas and do not enter animal pens, staff areas, tents or closed buildings unless specifically invited to do so.
VISITING OUR ANIMALS
You’re welcome to visit, enjoy and photograph our animals from their fence lines.
Our animals are incredibly friendly and affectionate, but there is one safety rule we cannot emphasize enough:
Please NEVER place fingers, hands or arms near or inside the donkeys’ mouths.
Our donkeys are extremely affectionate, and donkeys sometimes nibble as a form of affection. Unfortunately, what a donkey considers a little “love bite” can be quite a bite to a person!
Please make sure children understand this rule before approaching the animals.
Children must remain under direct adult supervision at all times, and all guests are expected to follow posted and communicated animal and farm-safety instructions. Guests who do not follow these rules may be asked to leave an animal area or the farm for everyone’s safety.
A LITTLE PRESEASON SNEAK PEEK
One of the fun parts about visiting us during preseason is getting a little behind-the-scenes look at what we’ve been creating for the season ahead!
You’re welcome to walk around and peek at our glamping areas, including Abide, Dwell and Selah. Feel free to look around and take it all in, but please do not enter the tents, as we’re still completing their final preparations.
TAKE A PEEK AT THE NEW STUDIO
You’ll also get a first look at our brand-new Studio—an air-conditioned, multipurpose space we’re creating for our community and overnight guests.
The Studio has been designed with mental, emotional, physical and spiritual wellness in mind, while also giving our community a beautiful place to learn, create, move, gather and connect.
We’re looking forward to filling the space with art and pottery classes, Mommy & Me experiences, fitness and wellness classes, small Bible studies and other intimate community groups and gatherings.
It will also serve as an air-conditioned space to host your food, desserts and party displays when celebrating a special occasion here on the farm—giving families a comfortable indoor space to complement their outdoor farm celebration.
During your Peaceful Pumpkin Patch visit, feel free to take a peek from outside and see what we’ve been working on, but please do not enter the Studio just yet. We’re still putting on the finishing touches before officially opening it to our community.
Consider it your little sneak peek at one of the newest ways we’re creating space for our community to gather, create, move, connect, celebrate and simply be well.
YOU’RE VISITING A REAL FLORIDA FARM
Please wear closed-toe or sturdy shoes appropriate for walking on grass, dirt and naturally uneven farm terrain.
Because our animals graze throughout the property, we’re intentional about the products we use on our land and avoid conventional chemical treatments whenever possible so our animals can safely graze.
That also means ants, mosquitoes and other Florida bugs are part of the great outdoors here!
If bugs tend to love you, we strongly recommend bringing your preferred bug spray.
You may encounter uneven ground, roots, sticks, dirt, mud, insects, wildlife, livestock and other completely normal conditions of a working Florida farm. Please watch your footing and supervise children carefully.
PICNICS + PLAY
You’re more than welcome to pack a picnic!
Bring a blanket and find a peaceful place to sit, or enjoy one of our picnic tables while you’re here.
Children may enjoy our playset with direct adult supervision. Children must remain with and under the supervision of their responsible adult throughout the entire visit and may not wander the property unattended.
Please help us leave the farm as beautiful as you found it by taking your belongings with you and placing trash in the appropriate receptacles.
PICTURES + PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHERS
Personal pictures and videos are absolutely encouraged. We hope you take lots of them!
If you’d like to have professional family photos taken during your visit, you’re welcome to invite your photographer. Professional photographers must purchase their own $25 Photographer Ticket for your scheduled reservation time.
A LITTLE FALL TREAT
We’ll have special fall coffee and beverages available during your visit for a small donation.
We accept cash, Cash App, Venmo and Zelle, with cash preferred.
Every little bit of support helps us continue what we do here, and we’re incredibly grateful.
SELF-PARKING + RESTROOMS
Parking is self-parking in our designated grass parking area.
Please drive slowly and carefully while entering and leaving the property and always watch for children, animals and other guests.
Our Wash House, located near the parking area, has full restrooms available for guests during your visit.
NEED TO REACH US?
We’re still in preseason, which means most of our days are being spent outside working on the farm rather than sitting behind a computer.
If you need to reach us regarding your reservation, please contact us through Facebook or Instagram.
Our social messages are monitored a few times throughout the week during preseason, so please allow some additional time for us to respond. We promise we’re not ignoring you—we’re probably outside building something.
ONE LITTLE FAVOR FOR US…
We spend so much time dreaming up, building and preparing every little experience here for our community that, funny enough, we’re often working behind the scenes while you are the ones actually getting to enjoy it.
The kids choosing their pumpkins.
The family pictures.
The quiet moments sitting under the trees.
Someone meeting a Highland cow for the first time.
The laughter.
The little moments we created all of this for.
Sometimes we don’t get to see them unless you share them with us.
We don’t pay for traditional advertising. This little farm has grown almost entirely through word of mouth and people like you sharing your experiences with others.
So if you share photos, videos, Stories or Reels from your visit, please tag us on social media!
Sharing helps another family discover this place, but it also gives us the gift of getting to experience a little bit of the joy you experienced here.
We genuinely love seeing the farm through your eyes.
THE HEART BEHIND THIS FARM
Before you visit, there’s one more thing we’d really love for you to know.
The Old Citrus Estate is much more than a place to pick a pumpkin.
At our heart, we are an animal-therapy wellness farm and micro-retreat built around connection, restoration and giving back to our community.
Giving back isn’t an extra thing we do here.
It’s the heartbeat of why we’re here.
The support generated through our experiences, stays, events, donations and purchases on the farm goes right back into helping us provide complimentary animal-therapy experiences and restorative stays for members of our community walking through some incredibly difficult seasons of life.
That includes individuals and families affected by chronic illness, anxiety, depression, disabilities and the grief of recently losing someone they love, as well as those experiencing PTSD following service in our Armed Forces, fire service and rescue communities.
So when you reserve your family’s Pumpkin Patch visit…
When you grab a coffee…
When you spend a night with us…
When you attend a class or experience…
When you purchase something made or grown here…
Or simply tell someone else about our farm…
You’re helping us use this place to bless somebody else.
And we couldn’t continue doing that without you.
Thank you for supporting us.
Thank you for sharing us with your friends.
Thank you for bringing your families here.
Thank you for allowing us to keep dreaming up ways for this little piece of land to serve the people around us.
In a very real way, this is your farm too.
We hope that when you walk through the gate, you feel that.
AND MOST IMPORTANTLY…
The Peaceful Pumpkin Patch isn’t meant to be rushed.
Take the pictures.
Sit for a while.
Watch the cows.
Say hello to the donkeys.
Let the kids play.
Find the perfect pumpkin.
Have a picnic.
Drink your coffee while it’s still warm.
For these two hours, there’s nowhere else you need to be.
We can’t wait to welcome you to The Peaceful Pumpkin Patch at The Old Citrus Estate.