Yellow River Farm has become a staple for fall in the local community for over three decades.

The farm is located at 8535 State Road 8, four miles east of Knox. From their homemade strawmaze, 80 foot tube slide, pumpkin cannon, petting zoo and more, the business has came a long way from its small start in 1990. Owned by Bill Scherf, his wife, Gina, and mother-in-law Rose Ann Eichelberg, Yellow River Farms began as a roadside produce stand.

When Scherf began dating his wife and working with his father-in-law, the late Wayne Eichelberg, the idea of a produce market grew from a table on the side of the road to what it is today.

The farm itself has been family tradition from the start, being in the Eichelberg family for several generations. After the years added on and the business blossomed, the Scherf's were able to buy even more land next to the family farm, adding on to the property. Now farming 160 acres around the property, 120 acres is used to farm their sweet corn, green beans, zucchini pumpkin, squashes and gourds. 

By the mid 1990's, the pumpkin patch was bringing in hundreds of visitors. Scherf said thousands come nearly every weekend in September and October. 

The family tradition has since grown in generations at Yellow River Farm, with Scherf's son and daughter-in-law now working at the farm. On the weekends his wife runs the concession trailer, while his mother-in-law is still in charge of the market barn.

Scherf says one of the best parts about it is being able to watch the families in the community grow along with it as well. Over the years, Scherf says it has been rewarding to be able to see the kids who would come to the pumpkin patches decades before, now bringing their own kids every autumn. 

Scherf said the last day for the season at Yellow River Farms is October 31. They will reopen the doors for their market again in July to sell produce.