In Gretna, NE, Vala’s Pumpkin Patch & Apple Orchard is a nostalgic slice of Americana. Every fall, hundreds of thousands of families travel from neighboring cities and states for the corn maze, hayrides, kettle corn, fresh-baked pies, homemade apple cider, and, of course, the opportunity to pick the perfect pumpkin. At 450 acres, Vala’s has seasonality down to a science, earning all they need to grow and thrive in the two months they’re open to the public. As a result, it is one of the biggest fall festivals in the country and houses one of the biggest restaurants in the state.
This family-run business has gone through many phases, dating back to the early 1980s when Founder Tim Vala leased a small plot of land to run a pick-it-yourself strawberry farm. “We thought if we could get ten or 15 acres of strawberries we could be self-sufficient on the land,” said Tim Vala. He planted a few other crops to sell—including pumpkins—and soon found he had more gourds than he’d bargained for. So he put an ad in the paper to try and get people out there to buy the pumpkins.
This unexpected success grew into the generational business it is today. Families fell in love with the farm experience. “The kids came out and the looks on their faces, you could tell it brought a lot of joy to the parents. I thought, ‘I’m going to concentrate more on the pumpkins,’” said Vala. That instinct to commit to what was working would evolve into Vala’s greatest strength over the years: being strategic about where to invest.
The challenge: Sustained growth with a limited operating season
After traveling to other pumpkin patches across the country, Tim was inspired to build a destination-worthy pumpkin patch and festival in Gretna. He closed down his summer farm stand and his wife, Jan, left her job to help transform the simple family farm into a theme park celebrating all things fall. Plus, Tim had a hunch: a limited season would associate Vala’s with that special time of year, making it an appealing, wholesome tradition for families.
“The analogy I use is: Christmas is only once a year, and it’s very special. You can try to be Christmas in July, but it just doesn’t work. We’re open in the fall – if you want to come to Vala’s, you have to come in the fall,” Vala explained.
Still, he knew that in order to keep visitors coming back during those two months a year, Vala’s would need to find new ways to grow and create unique experiences for visitors that added value each season. That would mean adding new food, new rides, new entertainment, and more, just like major theme parks do. They’d need to continually find ways to reinvest in the business so that visitors would enjoy it more and more every autumn, and bring their friends and family along.
“Every year we try to improve it and add to it,” said Vala. “Creativity is a big part of what we do, and it’s one of the most fun things we do.”
To operate their improvements, they would need to recruit an army of seasonal workers who could be trained quickly while holding onto the values of the Vala family farm. What started with individual interviews at the family kitchen table would evolve into an operation requiring 1,500 seasonal employees with 400 to 500 cashiers. With only 50 full-time employees, that annual growth and contraction would require systems able to adapt along with the seasons.
The solution: Leveraging technology for business growth
From its inception in 1984, Vala’s has strategically added new features every year: retail stores, restaurants, rides, attractions, and live shows. There are 25 separate food service facilities across the farm, ranging from snacks to homemade meals, making them one of the biggest restaurants in Nebraska, even though they’re only open a sixth of the year.
A couple of years ago, they opened a massive Pie Barn, where people can watch bakers hard at work, cranking out about 1,000 pies a day. More recently, they designed a cider mill that makes fresh cider and hard cider where onlookers can watch the whole process. With 50-plus attractions and live shows, the business continues to grow in complexity.
The growth has been possible, in part, thanks to tools that have allowed Vala’s Pumpkin Patch & Apple Orchard to integrate its many revenue streams with ease into the existing business. “We use the Square POS system, we use Square for Restaurants. We use Square Invoices and Square Gift Cards,” said Kelsey Vala Donovan, who now operates Vala’s with her two sisters, enabling Tim to retire.
Each department needs to essentially be treated as its own business, and through Square tools, all the facets integrate so they can monitor the ecosystem in real-time. Then during the offseason, the family analyzes performance data to see what worked and what didn’t, so they can double down and reinvest where guests find the most value.
On a busy Saturday, Vala’s can serve crowds of 20,000 people or more, so those 400-500 seasonal cashiers require an intuitive point-of-sale system that can keep up.
We have 94 tablets that use Square, 48 Square Stands, eight Square Registers, and six Square Kiosks. Cashiers have to be trained very quickly to get people through our food lines, our retail lines. We have to have a system that is really user-friendly and easy to be trained on. And so Square has worked really well for us.”
Kelsey Vala Donovan → co-owner at Vala's Pumpkin Patch & Apple Orchard
The benefits: Building a generational legacy and exploring new opportunities
As second-generation business operators, Donovan and her sisters are excited about finding new ways to grow the enterprise. They’ve found that Square’s tools are especially helpful with planning for the future.
“We’re using Square to look at where the opportunities are, where we’re seeing a lot of growth in certain sectors of the business,” said Donovan. “You see trends come and go, and we’re trying to make decisions in the moment and long-term based on the spending habits of our guests.”
Plus, having tools that are plug-and-play has made it easy to try new ideas on a whim. Last summer, for example, Donovan said the family decided to do a local farmer’s market for the first time, and the process was straightforward. “It was just really easy to get that set up in Square. We used a Square terminal and it was seamless,” she said.
Over the last 41 years, a lot has changed on the farm. There’s been a ton of growth, but there has also been loss. After there’s mother’s passing, Donovan and her sisters are doing their best to carry out her legacy, while also raising the third generation—five kids, ages 11 and under. The guiding principles of the family business remain the same: continue to reinvest, particularly in what customers respond to the most, and find ways to make magical memories for visitors every fall.
“It’s something that I hope me and my sisters can carry on for another 40 years,” said Donovan, “and pass on to our children.”
