History
Foothills Farm was started as a part-time farm in 1976 growing and selling various farm produce such as tomatoes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas, green beans, squash, pumpkins, sweet corn, watermelons, cantaloupes, peppers and egg plants..  In the early 1980's, various produced was shown at the Ohio State Fair through the 1990's.  In 1997, the farm went full-time continuing raising the same farm produce including gourds and dry flowers.  In 1999, after a bumper crop of gourds the previous summer, Foothills Farm started selling dried gourds by mail order from the internet.  In 2001,  the other farm produce was discontinued with gourds becoming the primary crop along with mini-pumpkins, strawberries and dry flowers.  Also, in 2000 their son has become a working partner in Foothills Farm. 

Future
In the future, we are planning to continue to expand gourd production, built a third greenhouse, expand the local sales, exhibit and warehouse areas.  The main concern in the future is finding enough land to support increase production. 

Farm Facts
Foothills Farm is on 40 acres located in Licking County in east central Ohio six miles northeast of Newark Ohio.  This part of Ohio is rolling hills, ranging in height no more then 300 feet tall.  Foothills Farm is located in a small valley with several different fields for farm production.  There is also rolling fields and about 15 acres of woods.  On the north side of the farm, there is a small pond that is spring fed.  The soil types on Foothills Farm ranges from hard pan clay in the valley to rocky gravel types of soil on tops of the hills.

Weather
Weather on Foothills Farm is typical of the Midwest and Great Lakes States.  The last frost is no later then May 23 and the first frost is around early October.  The high temperatures in the summer is usually in the 80's with a few days in the low 90's with a lot of humidity.  The winters are cold with a few days below zero.  The annual snow fall varies from almost none some winters to over 30 inches a season.  Generally, we have few severe storms here except for the regular thunderstorms in the summer.  There has only been one severe windstorm that done a little damage to the woods.  On occasion, there can be very heavy rainstorms in both the summer and the spring up to 8 inches in one storm.  This past summer was somewhat typical, in that it rained for three weeks at the end of May then in July, no rain at all.  This does has an impact on gourd production.  On Foothills Farm, we do not use irrigation for watering the plants.