Building a Family Business Legacy: Bishop’s Pumpkin Farm Story

What’s the secret to running a thriving family business for over 50 years?

Bishop’s Pumpkin Farm isn’t just a place to pick pumpkins—it’s a multi-generational success story built on tradition, innovation, and relentless growth. From humble beginnings in 1973 to hosting over 300,000 visitors a year, the Bishop family has turned a small farm into one of the nation’s top agritourism destinations.

In this episode, Wayne Bishop (Owner) and Lee Bishop (CEO) share how they’ve scaled the business, navigated the transition between generations, and built a culture that keeps both employees and customers coming back year after year.

🎯 Inside the Episode:
✅ How Bishop’s Pumpkin Farm grew from a small family-run patch to a 235-acre business
✅ The power of innovation in agritourism—rides, attractions, and hard cider
✅ What it takes to successfully pass a business from one generation to the next
✅ Why family dynamics can make or break a business (and how they make it work)
✅ Lessons learned from hiring and managing 800+ seasonal employees
✅ The next big vision for Bishop’s Pumpkin Farm

💬 What’s your favorite memory at Bishop’s Pumpkin Farm? Drop a comment below!
Website: https://www.bishopspumpkinfarm.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bishopspumpkinfarm/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bishopspumpkinfarm1973/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bishopspumpkinfarm1973

👍 Like & Subscribe for more entrepreneurial success stories!

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#FamilyBusiness #Entrepreneurship #Agritourism #BusinessGrowth #BishopsPumpkinFarm #Leadership #MarkHaneyShow #BusinessSuccess #PumpkinPatch #Farming #HardCider #SmallBusiness #entrepreneurship 
_______________________________________________________________

If this episode inspires you to be part of the movement, and you believe, like me, that entrepreneurs are the answer to our future, message me so we can join forces to support building truly great companies in our region. 
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Subscribe to my channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCom_​... 
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Mark Haney is a serial entrepreneur that has experience growing companies worth hundreds of millions of dollars. He is currently the CEO and founder of HaneyBiz 
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Instagram: http://instagram.com/themarkhaney​ 
Facebook: www.facebook.com/themarkhaney 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markehaney​ 
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This video includes personal knowledge, experiences, and opinions about Angel Investing by seasoned angel investors.  This content is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal, tax, investment, or financial advice.  Nothing in this video constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, or endorsement.

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Episode Transcript

Mark Haney (00:00):
Yes, this is the Mark Haney Show, on a
mission to ignite the entrepreneurial
revolution right here in the hometown.
We love, and we do that by building the
Backyard Advantage the most connected
community in the world for local
entrepreneurs, and it's based around this
culture of love.
And today on the show I have a couple of
men that I have just met, but I've loved

(00:21):
their business for the last several years
and you're going to enjoy this.
This is going to be a discussion about
family business, and Wayne Bishop is the
owner of Bishop's Pumpkin Farm and Lee
Bishop his son, I presume is the CEO of
Bishop's Pumpkin Farm, and if you don't

(00:44):
know about Bishop's, then you haven't ever
driven down Highway 65 before, because you
get out there and there is just this really
cool oasis that is a family-friendly place
to go.
You can go around holiday seasons, but I
think you can go full-time any time of the
year.
So we're going to get their story today,
and so I would just say welcome to the show,

(01:05):
guys.

Wayne Bishop (01:06):
Thank you.
Thank you, I do want to tell you Lee's only
been CEO for three weeks.
Uh-oh, three weeks.

Mark Haney (01:17):
He's still in his probationary period.

Wayne Bishop (01:17):
Okay, so how long is the?

Mark Haney (01:18):
probationary period last, I haven't decided
yet.
Okay, so let's find out about this.
Okay, let's get an overview of the company.
Then let's dive into those dynamics.
So maybe, wayne, maybe we'll have you start
off.
So this is a multi-generation company.
You guys have been around 50 years.
Maybe tell us what you are today and maybe
the origination of the business.

Wayne Bishop (01:38):
Yeah, so what we are today is a farm that
hosts 300,000 plus visitors every fall,
which is one of the largest operations in
the country like us.
There's only a handful that host that many.
We have 850 temporary employees in the fall.

(01:59):
We have about I don't know, 17 or 18
full-time now people year-round have about
I don't know, 17 or 18 full-time now people
year-round.
Uh, we do some other farming too, but but
our primary business is is this, this
pumpkin farm, and it's it's more than just
pumpkins actually.
You know the the actual sale of pumpkins
now is about five percent of what we of our
revenue in the fall.

(02:20):
Uh, so it's all the things that go with
that to.

Mark Haney (02:23):
You know, it's a family day at our, at our
place yeah, I've taken my kids, as I was
telling you, my kids are 36 and 38.
Now I was, I think, the last.
It's been a few years since I've been out
there, but I've taken my grandkids.
It's about time I take my.
I have two newer grandkids.
I gotta get them out.
But my, my grandkids that are a little

(02:44):
older, I've taken out there and I just see,
I just can remember these pictures that I
have of us being out there and it's such an
experience Can you describe.
So there's what is there?
A hundred acres or so.

Wayne Bishop (02:57):
It's pretty it's really big.
We actually own 235 now that's, that's a
big a big, big change for us in the.
In the last five years or so, we we started
on 45 acres okay, is, is all that we owned,
uh.

Mark Haney (03:11):
And then for a long time, we, we leased
ground around us uh to grow pumpkins on,
and and, um, you know, we finally were able
to buy some of that land just a few years
ago okay, so I want to describe, I want to
better understand the experience, um, so
you've got these, you know several acres,
hundreds of acres, um, and a lot of people

(03:33):
converge and I've gone out there um
halloween type time frame.
Are you guys open year round or is it
predominantly and seasonal?

Wayne Bishop (03:44):
yeah, no, it's, it's, it's all seasonal.
We we have stretched that season out now to
nine nine weeks so shortly after labor day
and through the first weekend in november
and and we may, uh, we may continue to
expand that season a little bit, and the
only other thing we do is is a um, we do a

(04:07):
spring field trip, so it's it's schools
only.
We get about 15,000 people in the spring
for that, Um, but but it's a tiny, tiny
amount compared to what we do in the fall.

Mark Haney (04:18):
Okay, well, let's get over.
Let's bring Lee into the conversation.
Lee is the new CEO, and uh, how well.
First of all, how's he working out so far?

Wayne Bishop (04:26):
So far fantastic.

Mark Haney (04:28):
Looks like you're going to pass the
probationary period, but you know, see how
you do today on the Mark Haney Show.
So give us a little bit of your background
and what led to you becoming the CEO.

Lee Bishop (04:42):
That's a great question.
I think we just hired a consultant who said
you know, lee's probably a better fit than
his brother.

Wayne Bishop (04:48):
And so my brother didn't take that so great.
She also said we should go outside first.
Yeah, yeah she actually.

Lee Bishop (04:54):
I was the second choice, remember I was the
third choice on CEO, but my background is I
graduated from Chico State with a finance
degree in 2011.
I then worked for most of my career at a
company called Reynolds and Reynolds and
they did software for car dealerships.
I spent all of my time working with service
managers and sales managers and controllers

(05:15):
and dealers and just answering their
questions on the software really and
osmosisly growing through, just being
around those people every day.
And then in 2020, I moved back to the farm
and I told my dad when I moved back I don't
want to manage people, I'm the controller
of the business and I'm going to start a
hard cider brand.

Mark Haney (05:35):
And that's what I'm going to do.
Okay.

Lee Bishop (05:37):
Now here I am the CEO.

Mark Haney (05:39):
Okay.
Well, do you have to manage people in this
new job?
Assume so, I love it.
Okay.
So let's go back to the beginning here.
It's 50 years old.
Was it started by your family?
Yeah, my parents.
Okay, so your family.
Can you tell me about how it started and

(06:00):
yeah so.

Wayne Bishop (06:01):
So my mother had been a teacher and um, and
she recognized that dad was a farmer and
she recognized that kids just didn't didn't
know where their food came from and, you
know, didn't know what what farms were all
about.
And so she really just wanted to get kids
out to a farm on a field trip.
And um thought, between her and dad they

(06:22):
thought, well, we could plant a few
pumpkins.
He had a small field in front of the house
that he wasn't doing anything with and she
said, well, I'm going to put pumpkins there
and see if we can get kids to come out on
field trips.
So that's what it started as, and right
away we were getting people on weekends too.
You know the word got out that you could

(06:43):
come out and pick a pumpkin off the farm,
but that's all it was.
In year one other and although maybe she,
maybe she was making pies also that first
year there were there were there were a few
years in the beginning where she would make
pies in her own kitchen and and sell on the
farm, which was not legal at the time,

(07:03):
interestingly enough it is now.
Now you can get a cottage food license and
do that now, which is great.
But at that time you know she did it for a
few years and the county came out and said
you know, you can't do that, and so then it
was a while before we could get a bakery
built and reestablish that part of the
business.

Mark Haney (07:19):
So what was it like?
When did you grow up working in the
business?

Wayne Bishop (07:25):
Yeah, in fact we were getting ready to do
my other son, austin, who, by the way, is
the COO my other son.
They really worked that out between them.
We had this consultant come in and give us
advice on how to do this succession and she
felt Lee was more suited to be the CEO.
And Austin was a little taken aback, which

(07:48):
we all were.
She was very blunt and he went home for the
weekend and came back and talked to Lee and
he said you know, I think she's right, I
think that you are a better fit for the CEO
and I'm a better fit for COO Interesting.
And so it's fantastic the way they've

(08:08):
worked that through.
That was almost a year ago.
We had that meeting, and so we were working
a year towards making it happen, but anyway,
I'm way off track.
What was the question?

Mark Haney (08:19):
So how did you take over?
So mom and dad started the business in what
the 70s?

Wayne Bishop (08:25):
Yeah, so 1973 was the first year, and
that's why this came up.
My other son, was talking to me this
morning that we were going to make a video
on just the history of our hayride to the
field.
So we had done that from the beginning and
my brother and I were the drivers when we
were six and seven years old, you know.

Mark Haney (08:44):
Drove the hayride.
Now these motorized uh, oh, yeah, it's a
tractor.

Wayne Bishop (08:49):
Yeah, yeah and uh anyway, so there's
there's a.

Mark Haney (08:52):
We can talk for an hour about that.
Okay, so you don't work.

Wayne Bishop (08:55):
They put you to work early we, we worked,
we worked through childhood and, and which
is fine, you know.

Mark Haney (09:02):
And so that was you and your brother, and
then you as your brother.
Did he ever stay with the business?

Wayne Bishop (09:08):
Well, so interestingly enough, we both, you
know, when we both graduated from high
school, the business was still very small,
Okay, and neither of us expected to come
back.
And we went off to college.
And when my brother was almost finished
with college, my dad showed up one day and
said hey, man, I need help.
You know the business is growing and I need
help.
And so my brother went back right after

(09:29):
college.
He worked about six years six, seven years,
something like that Decided he wanted to do
something else and left, and that was my
opportunity then to go back.
And so that actually is 30 years ago next
week.
Wow.

Mark Haney (09:45):
And the business has changed a lot since
then.
When you came back, how big was the
business?

Wayne Bishop (09:53):
We were grossing $300,000 at that time.

Mark Haney (09:57):
Okay, Annual revenue $300,000.

Wayne Bishop (10:00):
Yeah.

Mark Haney (10:00):
And now you have 800 seasonal employees on
hundreds of acres.
It's quite a bit, I would assume.
So Okay, so that was, and at this age
you're an adult, so you were part of
driving that growth.

Wayne Bishop (10:15):
Yes, so my dad retired in 2005.
So so, uh, you know, I worked for him for
10 years, for my mom and dad worked for
them for 10 years and, uh, and then he
retired in 2005 and and I took over, so so
I got to run the company for 20 years and
and we, uh, I, since I do know the numbers,
I I can tell you well, we average 15 growth

(10:36):
over that 20 years.
Wow, 15 a year.
So, uh, we're about 14 times now what we
were in 2005.
Wow, congratulations on that growth.

Mark Haney (10:49):
A lot of people are probably interested in
the family dynamics here a little bit more.
So I have kids that are 36 and 38, and if
one of them became the boss, that would not
work right.
They're too stubborn.
I couldn't.
I can't even imagine it.
My brother and I we had a business together.

(11:12):
I was actually in part of a family business
and we had video stores and my three
brothers and I bought out my parents from,
bought out the video stores.
We had 12 stores and ultimately my younger
brother and I bought out the older brother
and our titles were he was more like the
financial guy and I was more like the
people guy, so maybe a little bit like you

(11:33):
and your brother.
Somehow.
He let me have the title of CEO, but he was
really the brains and I was the person that
was more like in the field.
Uh, you know, we sold security cameras, had
a, uh, you know, pretty good size group of
security camera companies and so I was out
there with the people and, you know, kind
of like a hands-on with all the customers

(11:53):
and stuff.
Um, he let me have the title of CEO, but he
was really the brains behind the business.
So, yeah, uh, so I'm kind of curious, lee,
from your standpoint, do you break up roles
so you don't have to run into each other as
much, or do you really manage him?

Lee Bishop (12:12):
No, I don't manage him.
He's unmanageable.

Mark Haney (12:15):
Yeah, yeah, I was like my brother didn't
manage me and I didn't manage my brother,
but we had titles right.

Lee Bishop (12:22):
You need something for the, you know Well
interesting, he's my older brother by three
and a half years.
oh interesting, he's been at the farm for
15 years and I've been there for five yeah
um, so for him to just say, you know, yeah,
you're a better fit for it was for him, I'm
sure, a shot in the heart.
You know he's been there for so long.
But naturally when he came back to the

(12:43):
business it was a lot different than now
and he kind of got siloed into you're an
outside guy, that's what you do.
And when I came back to the business it was
like we need help inside, you know.
And so I think we both kind of got just
siloed into our own areas.
But I think you know, and I've told him
this I'm not his boss, I'm his business
partner.
We are gonna be co-owners in this business.

(13:05):
We already are co-owners in the business.
I'm not gonna make a huge decision without
him knowing about it.
I can't just go build a new attraction with
him not being able to see, it Are there
other brothers and sisters, or just you two?
We have a younger sister and she worked
with the business up until 2020, for about
five years or so, and she left in 2020.

Mark Haney (13:26):
Okay, but you all live locally.

Lee Bishop (13:29):
She moved away.
Actually, when she quit, she moved up to
Idaho.

Mark Haney (13:32):
Okay, she wanted to get away from it all.
Huh, yeah, okay, but do you and your
brother, so you have all these acreage.
Do you live near the property or on the
property?

Lee Bishop (13:41):
My brother lives in the town in Wheatland
and I actually live in Lincoln, so I'm 15
minutes away.
But he my dad lives on the farm.
Oh, you live on the farm too.

Mark Haney (13:47):
Okay, so what we did with our family and we
don't have a?
We don't have a business like yours where
you know you could build, you know you have
enough acreage.
You guys could build more houses out there.
We've ended up building a family compound
where there's 12 of us we all live, you
know, cause we've got grandkids and stuff
and we all live on the property together
and we've been doing this for the last few
years and we haven't killed each other yet.

(14:11):
Um yeah, yeah, yeah Watch the news.
So I'm curious if you've thought about
doing that kind of thing.
What's the family dynamic in terms of you
know, you living uh in Lincoln, which is,
for those listening, that's probably 20, 30
minutes from wheatland.
Wheatland is where the?
Uh the business is and uh, it's this small
town with a frosty in it and it's got you

(14:32):
guys, but you guys are tucked away.
So what's the population of wheatland?
5 000 people less 30 about 3 500 okay, 3
500.
So how is the?
You know, are there?
Are there family meals together, where you
guys all get together and talk?
How does that?

Lee Bishop (14:47):
work.
Well, I mean, we all go to work together
every day.
So we actually eat lunch together basically
every day, which is more of a family time
than it is a work time.
Interesting, so right in the middle of our
day we have more of an hour family time.
But yeah, I mean we're a pretty close
family.

(15:08):
So even all the holidays, even though we
all work together, we still see each other
on all the holidays.
And, uh, my brother has three girls and so
we're always going to a softball game or a
volleyball game or soccer game or something
you know.
So we're, we're pretty well, always
together.

Mark Haney (15:17):
One of the things that, um, I've always
felt, and so Ronald Reagan quote, is that
all great change in America begins at the
dinner table.
And I'm wondering, like, growing up, were
you guys at the dinner table talking about
business and you know what's involved all
day long.
Were you, was it bred into you, uh, as as a

(15:39):
young person?
Or were you talking basketball or football
or something like that, what described to
me like family time when you were growing
up?

Lee Bishop (15:48):
it was definitely both of those things okay
we had to have our you know hour-long talk
about barry bonds that time.

Mark Haney (15:56):
Okay, now are we a Barry Bonds fan.

Lee Bishop (15:59):
Oh yeah, we're San Francisco Giants people.
Oh nice.
I don't know exactly what happened at Volco.

Mark Haney (16:05):
Well, yeah, you can see my Buster Posey
shirt right on the back of my chair over
there, so I'm a Giants fan too.

Lee Bishop (16:10):
But definitely at home it was.
You know, we grew up in the business.
We lived in Wheatland when we grew up and
my grandparents are still living on the
farm.
I started going to work in the bakery with
my grandma when I was five or six years old
and I was helping her in there.
I wasn't allowed to drive hay rides when I
was seven years old.

Mark Haney (16:29):
Yeah, that is a young age.

Lee Bishop (16:30):
We changed that Probably by the time I was
eight or nine, I was probably driving the
tractor for my dad while he was moving the
pipes.
He would get me out of bed at 6.30 in the
morning.
When I was nine years old, 10 years old my
brother and I would alternate days on who
got to do that.

(16:50):
But yeah, even at home, around the dinner
table or when we'd go to my grandparents'
house work came up a lot.

Mark Haney (16:53):
What were your grandparents like, or what
are they like?

Lee Bishop (16:56):
My grandpa passed away a few years ago.
My dad will probably tell you a very
different story of my grandpa than I will,
and my brother will too.
My brother will tell you a lot.
Like my dad, I wasn't around when my
grandpa was fading out of the business.
I was away.
I loved my grandpa.
He was a hard worker man.
He's got red dirt in his knuckles.
That's who he is.
He worked a hard worker man he is.
Uh, he's got red dirt in his knuckles.

Wayne Bishop (17:17):
you know that's who he is.

Lee Bishop (17:18):
He's just, he worked, and worked and worked.
And my grandma's similar, you know, but she,
she obviously had different.
You know, passions, the bakery, but they
loved work.
That's who they were, that's the generation
they grew up with.

Mark Haney (17:28):
Yeah, um, how so you?
There's a contrasting opinion there.

Wayne Bishop (17:33):
Give us the uh, give us your thoughts on
that way you know, my dad and I, you know,
we were both passionate about the business
and there was a period of time there when I
first came back, where it was really just
the two of us doing all the work and and my
mom and you know, and then we gradually
were able to hire a little bit of help.

(17:53):
But um and my dad had some mental health
issues that he dealt with his whole life
and I think he he kind of conquered those
at the end, but but he uh, boy, we clashed
at times, okay, you know, and we had great
times together.
You know, we uh, my favorite year of my

(18:14):
life, maybe, in 1999, we spent the winter
in the shop building a new locomotive for
our train and we and you know who gets to
do that with their dad right, we built a
train together and you know, and that train
has hauled hundreds of thousands of people
and and made a lot of families happy.
So, um, that was it was, it was fantastic,

(18:34):
you know, we both loved to be in the shop.
I majored in engineering and ran a machine
shop before I came back to the farm and and,
um, we had a great time.
But then there were other times.
Boy, boy, we, we butted heads, you know,
and and uh so, so, we had our ups and downs,
you know, but we stuck it out and and in
the end, you know, uh, I think we respected

(18:56):
each other.
We always know.
Uh, I think we respected each other.
We, we always did.
We always respected each other.
I think, um, there were just times where it
was hard to work together.

Mark Haney (19:04):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, you guys are members of the family
business association.
I'm a member too.
I'm not as involved maybe, as you guys have
been a little less active, but uh, this is
where family businesses can get to know
other family businesses, get to learn ideas
on what it's like to have a family business

(19:25):
that is handed down through the generations.
I'm kind of curious.
You said you brought in the consultant, and
that's do you?
What kind of information have you got from
the family business organization?
I'm assuming that idea came from someone
there.
Is that right?

Wayne Bishop (19:40):
Well, yeah, actually, we got the referral
for her from that organization.
But you know, I think the biggest thing is,
it's so when you, when you learn that every
family business, that I've ever heard of or
that we've ever heard about, goes through

(20:01):
similar struggles as what we've gone
through and, um, of course, some of them
it's.
It's the end of them.
You know some of them can't work through it,
but but you, we get to go there and hear
about the ones that have encountered their
challenges and and gotten through, worked
their way through them, and you know how
they did it.
And you know, bringing this consultant in

(20:22):
was all about communication really, which
is, you know, if you could give one piece
of advice to families and business together.
You got to keep talking and we don't always
do that when we should.
Lee talked about our, our lunches together
and that was something I heard years ago.

(20:42):
The family that owned the jelly belly uh
business and and um that that there was
something they did.
I think in their case they commuted
together two generations for for decades
they lived near each other.
They were 10 miles or whatever from the
plant and just that, 10 minutes or 15
minutes in the car twice a day, where

(21:04):
there's no pressure to talk about business.
If there's something that comes up, it's
not like okay, we've scheduled a meeting.
You got to talk about business.
Well, when we have lunch together, we talk
about my grandkids.
We talk about sports, sports politics,
whatever.
And if, if there's something pressing in
the business, it will come up and we'll
talk about it.

(21:25):
But we just, you know, I think we maintain
the love of the family that way and the
closeness and and it.
If there was one thing that we've that that
I started that we do right it.
It's like hey, you guys, when they came
back to work I said I want you at my house
for lunch as many days of the week as
possible.
You know sometimes it doesn't work out, but

(21:48):
as much as possible we have lunch at my
house.

Mark Haney (21:50):
That's great, my brother and I we had our
own businesses, since, like we had paper
route together.
You probably remember the Sacramento Union.
I delivered the Sacramento Union as a kid,
so I recruited my little brother to help me
and it kind of became our thing.
But in our video stores and security stuff.
But we went out to lunch almost every day
for a few decades One year, and we'd always

(22:13):
split like who's going to pay?
Or sometimes the business paid.
But one year for my birthday I think it was
for my 40th birthday he said I's going to
pay, or sometimes the business paid, um,
but one year for my birthday, I think it
was for my 40th birthday.

Lee Bishop (22:23):
He said I'm going to buy lunch for the next
year.
That was my birthday, cause we go to lunch
every day.
I said that was my.

Mark Haney (22:26):
you give me a financial but that was also
saying I want to have lunch with you too.
So I remember that being, uh, very touching
gift.
That you know, not only was he going to pay
for lunch for a year, but that you know,
hey, he liked that.
We did that together and it helped the
business and it definitely helped our
relationship to be talking all the time.

(22:46):
So I agree with you on that communication.

Wayne Bishop (22:48):
And I'll go one step further on that.
I just was telling Lee the other day, I
think in 2020, covid happened and my
daughter had been with us for several years,
loved the business.
Uh, she was pregnant with her second child
at the time.
Uh, and we said, when, when you know, you
remember the, the terror we all felt at the

(23:10):
beginning of kovid?
We, there was so much unknown and we said,
hey, uh, you know, you don't need to be
coming into work right now.
Why don't you stay home with your, with
your older child?
Not, let's not take her to daycare.
Hey, you don't need to be coming into work
right now.
Why don't you stay home with your older
child?
Let's not take her to daycare right now.
We don't have to have that exposure and
anyway.
So she ended up home for a while, then had
her other child home for a few more months

(23:31):
and we're not having lunch together.
And at the end of that, she's like hey, you
know what I want to be a mom, which is fine.
I have zero criticism about that.
My wife didn't work while the, while the
kids were growing up, and she, you know,
mom, being a mom, was the priority and
that's wonderful, um, but it, it, she, she,

(23:52):
she lost interest in the business and we
lost a connection that we had during that
time, you know, yeah, you seem sad about
that.
Oh, I'm still sad, yeah, and and uh, you
know she may listen to this, so but, uh,
but what would you say to her?

Mark Haney (24:11):
right now she's listening to this.
What would you tell her?

Wayne Bishop (24:13):
uh, we miss her, you know, and, and you
know what we still.
We miss her in the business.
We still see her.
We're not estranged by any means.
We she was just here for christmas and and
um, you know, we get along great, but we
miss her in the business.
You know, she, growing up, of the three of
my kids, she was the one who loved the
business the most and and um and always

(24:33):
talked about coming back at some point and
um.
It doesn't lessen the way the boys felt
about it.
Or when they chose to come back, they did
it for good reasons, but it hurt when she
said, no, you know what, I'm not interested
anymore.
That was.

Mark Haney (24:50):
What prompted her move to Idaho.

Wayne Bishop (24:52):
They felt they could, between her and her
husband, that living up there with a lower
cost of living, that she wouldn't have to
work and could stay home and be a mom.

Mark Haney (25:01):
So yeah, yeah, um, my family, right now
we're transitioning in our own way as well,
and one of my buddies he's actually, um, uh,
natoma wealth management, by the way he
suggested that we write a family mission
statement, and you know like we live, all

(25:23):
we all live on this property and you know,
this unity is an asset, a valuable asset if
it can be, if it can be brought together
and continued, and he said he thought the
key to that was writing a family mission
statement.
So there, but me and my wife are supposed
to stay out of that.
They're supposed to present the family

(25:44):
mission statement to us and they're in the
process of preparing that or getting that
going right now.
Have you guys done a family mission
statement, or has that ever been
contemplated?

Wayne Bishop (25:55):
We don't even have a company mission
statement.
Okay.

Mark Haney (26:01):
No, so do you do annual goals and things
like that?

Lee Bishop (26:05):
Yes, yeah, okay, because that growth didn't
happen by accident.
Yeah, we have core values and definitely
meetings, and there's just some little
corporate stuff that we've probably missed
along the way.

Mark Haney (26:17):
Well, I, I mean, it's obviously worked.
Uh, you've decided.
I always think of a.
A mission statement is what we are going to
be, so, or, excuse me, what we are going to
do, and a vision statement is what we are
going to be, and it's all centered around
those core values.
And so how did you come up with the core
values?

(26:37):
Were they there when you got there or did
you help?

Wayne Bishop (26:39):
They were there when I got there, that was
something that's huge I had for years, of
course, heard about mission statements,
didn't understand the point, didn't take
the time to try to understand it, and
finally somebody made me understand why we
should have one, and I don't remember how
that happened, but so I bought a book and
started reading and it said you know, step

(26:59):
one is to define your core values.
And so we got that done, and that's as far
as we got.
Yeah.
Yeah, got back to work.

Mark Haney (27:06):
We got pumpkins to tend to.
So that's really cool.
So do you have, I would imagine, that
there's a vision for the company, and one
of the things I think we have to get right
if we want to attract the right teammates.
In my world, you want to attract investors,

(27:28):
if you want to get people to follow you,
you need a compelling vision.
So how compelling is your vision?

Lee Bishop (27:37):
I think it's a very compelling one.
You know, we always talk about what's next
for us, so maybe we don't have a mission
statement, but we're always talking about
what's the next project and what's the one
after that.
And the one after that and the one after
that We've got, you know, I like to say,
five years of projects that are likely 15
years of projects lined up, you know.

(27:57):
But the nature of our business is we always
have to do capital improvements.
That's what we have to do to keep people
coming back.
With that, you've got to have some vision
and some foresight of what to do next.

Mark Haney (28:10):
All right, well, so I'm going to have you
paint the picture for me, lee here, what is
the?
So I walk through the door.
You still have the train, lee here.
So I walked through the door.
You still have the train, right, that you
and your dad built right.
So you got this train and then I remember
going out in the fields it must have been
on a hayride type thing and then you get to
pick out your pumpkins, but then you can
come back to this sort of centralized area

(28:34):
where there's get stuff to eat and petting
zoo, and all that Now.
Now that was 10 years ago.
Pay me a picture of what it is today,
because I know it's changed.
You've done some capital improvements, yeah
so we have now.

Lee Bishop (28:44):
We have five or six, uh, amusement style
rides.
Okay, on the train, a carousel.
We have a airplane ride.
That's kind of like the dumbo ride at
disneyland.
We have a, uh, tootling tractors is what we
call.
It was just tractors that go around some
scenes and animatronics thing to each other.
Uh, we installed a teacup ride last year.
Um, we have you pick sunflowers, a petting

(29:06):
zoo, a corn maze, uh you know, apple cider
slushies, which is our number one seller, a
bakery that my grandma, you know, created
and, and like a food court style thing on
top of a bunch of you know, weekend
entertainment around the farm of jugglers
and, uh, all that other stuff, and then we
have a bar on site.

Mark Haney (29:24):
Now, too, that's serving the hard cider
that I came to make okay, yeah, I see that
in your shirt is this is, uh, this hard
cider.
Tell me about that.

Lee Bishop (29:31):
That sounds like some a reason for me to
get out there, yeah, and uh, one of my
reasons to come back was I, my dad and my
sister went to a class in 2019 or 2018 how
to make hard cider, and they both left that
class saying man, we don't have time to do
that aha, so I'll have to do it, but don't
yeah, so you make a.

Mark Haney (29:48):
This is a drink that um.
It's got alcohol in it I take it and uh, so
you, uh, you sell it there at your business.

Lee Bishop (29:56):
Yeah, we make it.
We just we're about to keg our first stuff
for the 2025 season.
On Monday, we'll be our first kegging.
So, yeah, I started making hard cider in
2020.
I'm a finance guy, so I'm not a chemistry
guy, so I had to learn how to make it,
which took some years.
It's really one of the things that really

(30:17):
took off.
Our business, too, is now you can have hard
cider all around the farm.

Mark Haney (30:21):
What's it taste like?
What goes into it?

Lee Bishop (30:23):
It's apple.
The base is apple, which is like a white
wine, and we sweeten it up with a flavor.
So we have just an apple which is back
sweetened with a little apple juice
concentrate.
Or we have a blackberry, a pineapple, guava
or a pear, so we juice concentrate.
Or we have a blackberry, pineapple, guava
or a pear, so we have four different
flavors right now, but the base of that is
all fermented apple juice okay, and then
the only place to get it is at your

(30:44):
location.

Mark Haney (30:45):
Are you guys selling it through retail?

Lee Bishop (30:46):
just at the farm right now.

Wayne Bishop (30:49):
We are constrained with space right now
where we make it just to get it made for
what we can serve.

Lee Bishop (30:56):
Yeah, okay, we've run out all year for the
nine weeks we're open yeah, okay.

Mark Haney (31:01):
So now paint me a picture.
You say you have these capital improvements
that are, um, that you've dreamt up, um, is
that to make the place, uh, different?
Obviously you need to put capital you got
to put money into your business to keep it
going.
But are you going to do new things?
What were the?
What are those things going to look like?

Lee Bishop (31:19):
yeah, so uh, this year our big project is a
big um snow tube style slide that's six
lanes.
Uh, it's 50, 60 feet in the air goes 200
feet long oh my goodness, okay, snow tube
style so um, sit on like a snow tube and go
down this big, huge hill.

Mark Haney (31:38):
Uh, it's all bumpered, contained and you
can race each other okay, so not with
actual snow, though, but yeah right, you're
going down, is it?

Lee Bishop (31:46):
uh dirt or no, it's on a, it's a plastic,
it's a.

Wayne Bishop (31:50):
It's a turf, which is the same thing that,
like skiers or boarders use to train on
when there's no snow.

Mark Haney (31:56):
Same same stuff.
And then how high is it again?

Wayne Bishop (31:59):
Well, the actual drop, I think, is around
35 feet, but there we're going to, we're
going to put it in, um, we're going to put
that coming out of a building that's going
to look like an old grain elevator or one
of the old rice dryers that are that are in
our area.

Mark Haney (32:15):
So that building is going to be almost 50
feet tall, okay, and so it's going to be a
real landmark and so you walk upstairs to
get there and then you'll go down the slide
and it's 200 feet long, long and you're
going.
Uh, so are you engineering this well?

Wayne Bishop (32:33):
yeah, somewhat.
Yeah, I mean I, I, which, which is what I'm
still.
That's why he's letting me still work for
him yeah, you got to.
You got that mechanical engineering stuff,
yeah yeah, and, and that's what I enjoy
doing the most, or or the the new projects
on the farm so, uh, it's for adults or kids.

Mark Haney (32:50):
I take it either and you're going pretty
fast.

Lee Bishop (32:53):
It sounds like yeah it's a big, yeah, and a
lot of farms have done a smaller version of
this.
You know we're big, yeah, and a lot of
farms have done a smaller version of this.
We're doing six lanes.
A lot of farms have done two lanes of it I
like the six lanes that way too.

Mark Haney (33:03):
You know people, brother and sisters can go
down at the same time and kind of race,
yeah.

Lee Bishop (33:07):
So anyway, that's one of the projects, but
you know we're working on a.
Uh, we're really behind on food service
right now.
Our crowd is demanding more food, more
lunch items, so we're working on another
kitchen which would be a chicken strips and
corn dog style.
Um, we want another building for a hard
cider production so we can make it
permanent in there.
Uh, we desperately need more bathrooms.

(33:29):
Our customers are um begging for more
bathrooms, right now we have to kind of
backfill with porter potties.

Wayne Bishop (33:37):
We're also thinking about what the next
amusement ride will be.
Those take.
If you're going to order a new one, take
about a year and a half to get them.
So we're going to go to Germany this summer
and look at one that we think we like.

Mark Haney (33:51):
We were talking about subsea systems
earlier.
Have you talked to people that are
obviously really good on underwater rides
and things like that, but they build
amusement type rides.
Have you talked to those guys at all about
what you're, what you're thinking?

Wayne Bishop (34:05):
not really.
It's interesting, you know they go to the
same conference we do in orlando when we're
going to uh to look for these things and
and uh, we haven't specifically talked to
them about, about what they could do for us
we should do that.

Mark Haney (34:17):
It's fun because you know they've got such
imagination they were developing a ride.
Uh, last time we talked to them actually an
underwater ride, yeah, yeah and for those
listening subsea systems has got an
underwater car among other rides, and they
they have them in a mute.
Uh, excuse me, like resort areas typically,
but they are also a family business and a

(34:38):
lot like you guys, I mean just a great
story of innovation and growth and
stick-to-itiveness.
So tell me more about like what you see for
like the next 12 months or so with you and
your brother.
You know you've got to get through your
probationary period and so how does?

(35:01):
that if he doesn't get through it, do we go
to the consultant or do we go to?

Lee Bishop (35:04):
we go to bro brother, I like to think I
already completed it, because the thing is
she told us last february, I think it was,
you know okay, we decided lee was probably
the next guy and that's it.
Well, I'm not gonna let you do it.
Take the title till next year, but you can
act like it now.
So I already I've already done it for a
year, in my opinion, but he's still holding
the probationary card.

Wayne Bishop (35:24):
I just made that up when we got here.

Mark Haney (35:27):
I love it that you're still involved in the
business too.
It makes it there's a lot of continuity.

Wayne Bishop (35:32):
I'll tell you what, mark I'm the happiest
I've ever been right now, because these
guys are more than ready to run the company.
I still get to work in it and do the fun
parts and, and, um, do some other things
with my time that I want to be, want to
work on too, and it's, it's great.
These three weeks have been great.

Mark Haney (35:51):
Oh, that's great a lot of people, uh uh,
want to shy away from the 800 employees in
california kind of thing.
Um, so you have 800, I guess most of them
are seasonal type employees.
But some of these employees work year round
to keep the business operational.

(36:11):
You know, keep the farm rolling.
How difficult is that to?
I guess?
It seems to me that it'd be running the
farm pieces.
You know, know, that's kind of like that
just kind of continues.
But when you have to staff up, um for these
seasons, talk to me about the what goes

(36:32):
into that yeah, so uh, luckily, most of
that's not on my plate okay that's your
brother, no, our HR manager oh okay, um,
it's, uh, it's been a process.

Lee Bishop (36:43):
I think we've grown it, certainly over the
last few years of the last 10, 15 years.
Our HR program my mom kind of started that
and then my sister came in and was our HR
manager for a long time and kind of
developed this, our strategy, going into it.
Now our HR manager and my wife play a big
role in getting the people out.
Now our HR manager and my wife play a big

(37:04):
role in getting the people out.
You know we have 20 full-time employees
right now.
We have one HR manager.
We'll bring in another 8 to 10 people to
help with the hiring process.
We'll hire 850-ish employees.
You know last year we had about 550 that
were returners, so their paperwork is
pretty seamless.

Mark Haney (37:21):
Oh wow, that makes it so much easier.
So you have supervisors, you have people
coming back, so you already have your
little management staff sort of set up.

Lee Bishop (37:30):
That was a struggle for us, especially in
2020 and 2021.
We lost a lot.
Our retention rate on seasonal employees
was not good, so we spent a lot of effort
over the last three or four years to try to
develop some strategies to get people to
come back year after year, and it's working
now.
So we're only hiring 300 or so brand new

(37:51):
employees.
Everybody else comes in.
They know the drill.
We usually put them back to where they were
the previous season.
It makes life a lot easier.
My brother and I were talking just the
other day how much easier the start of this
season was than previous season, and it's
it was, you know, the biggest year we've
ever had.
So there's something to be said about
getting returners.

Wayne Bishop (38:11):
So a number of years ago now I couldn't
tell you exactly what year it was, but we
went over a million dollars in payroll that
year and now we're four, four and a half
million, but, but we went over a million
dollars.
And I thought four and a half million, but
but we went over a million dollars and I
thought, holy cow, we've never spent that
much on anything.
You know, any improvement we'd ever made on
the farm at that point had never spent a
million dollars.
And I thought, here we are spending it

(38:32):
every year on people and, and yet we put
very little effort into making sure that
we're getting the best people and that
we're training them and and giving them the
culture that we want them to pass on the
best people, and that we're training them
and and giving them the culture that we
want them to pass on.
So so really, my wife jumped in at that
point.
You know we talked about it and we happened
to go to a seminar that year where a lady
talked about how to do behavioral

(38:53):
interviews and and and.
So we made some huge changes at that time,
started getting better people and, and then
likely Lee and his wife have worked on this
the last three out four years.

Lee Bishop (39:06):
We really.
The interview process hasn't really changed
since my mom took it over yeah it's
relatively similar.
You know, we we have to hire kids, and
that's struggle right.

Mark Haney (39:16):
Most of the workers that you hire are
direct facing with customers.
Yeah, yeah, good, good, half of them at
least, and uh, anyway.

Lee Bishop (39:24):
So, yeah, my mom really built up that first
half part of it and then, you know, my wife
really, uh, has built up the back half,
which is retaining them and getting them to
come back, and so you know, we have to do a
lot of incentives to get them to come back
year after year, but it's working what's
great too is that for some reason we don't
fully understand, Hopefully just people

(39:44):
enjoy working for us, but hopefully that's
the reason.

Wayne Bishop (39:47):
But we just get a ton of applicants Other
than those couple of school there you have.
Lindhurst High School is out there.

Mark Haney (40:04):
What else Wheatland?

Lee Bishop (40:05):
High School.
There's Wheatland High School there, but we
get a lot from Yuba County in general, so
Plumas Lake.

Wayne Bishop (40:10):
But also Sutter County and Sutter County.

Mark Haney (40:11):
Okay, people get to drive for that type of
thing, it's probably a great.
It's probably like a part-time job for most
people, right?

Lee Bishop (40:19):
It's right before Christmas, so you can put
a couple extra thousand bucks in your
pocket, right?

Mark Haney (40:23):
before.

Lee Bishop (40:24):
Christmas.
That's how we get a lot of good people on
the weekends.

Mark Haney (40:26):
Yeah, and people, probably parents.
You have any parents that drive out there
and their kid is a worker.
Their teenage kid is a worker and they're a
worker.
Yeah, because transportation for a 16 or
17-year-old is harder, especially if you've
got to drive 20 minutes.

Wayne Bishop (40:40):
We've had that happen a number of times,
where we hire a kid and then their mom will
come in and say you know what I got to
drive here anyway.
Could I work too, yeah?

Lee Bishop (40:48):
Yeah, we get a lot and it just seems like
we're getting better at that, because I
think we're doing a really good job
treating our employees well.
We're getting four or five or six people
from the same household working for us and
it just it really makes everything a lot
easier, because they also hold them each
other accountable when they're not doing
something right and whatever building and

(41:08):
that's the thing too, is that when you,
when you get a family working for you, you
know, we have several of these families
that, like this, they care about the
business as much as we do you know they
they, they, they really consider it their
own as much as we do, and when you can have
that in an employee, it's special.

Mark Haney (41:31):
So your wives are both in the business.
Your mom and dad were both in the business.
I mean, I couldn't work with my wife no way.
We worked together great at home, but you
know 40 years and we never.
Well, we started working together in the
video stores back in the day, but you know

(41:53):
she worked in accounting, I was more like a
customer facing, so we didn't really work
together.
I don't know how you guys do that.

Wayne Bishop (42:02):
You know it's not for everybody uh my wife
and I were doing great until you know.
We just got done remote, doing a huge
remodel on a house, and that almost well,
that was almost.

Mark Haney (42:13):
Did you keep living in the house during the
remodel?

Wayne Bishop (42:15):
fortunately we didn't have to do that, but
but yeah, that was, that was tougher than
working together on the farm.
But I'm not sure what makes it how it works
that well.
We just maybe we chose good women.
Yeah, I think well between you know,
between.

Lee Bishop (42:29):
Well, my wife is a very hard worker, so
it's pretty easy to work with her because
she wants to work, it's it's shutting her
brain off at night.
That's, that's what I struggle with because
she wants to work till till we're laying in
bed.
I'm like, hey, I'm going to sleep now.
But I think what drives us is we all have
the same passion for the business to grow

(42:51):
me and my brother my dad and my wife and my
mom.
We all want success, we all want it to grow.
So that's really, I think, if we all have
that at the root of ourselves, that's, uh,
that's all you need really Is our business
and there are others like this too, but
there's a lot of businesses where you just
don't get the gratification that you, that

(43:11):
we get.

Wayne Bishop (43:12):
You know we're we're so lucky that if
you're in your office and you're a little
grumpy and not feeling it, you can walk
outside and see a lot of happy families.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
And when you see that and a lot of times
they'll, uh, they'll recognize us and, you
know, want to talk and just tell us hey, we
just love coming here.
Thank you for doing this, um it.

(43:34):
You know that that can smooth over the
rough patches real easy.

Mark Haney (43:39):
Yeah you know I had talked to you, uh, I
think before the show, about, like, we have
these 74 acres out in lumas it's like six
minutes from here and on horseshoe, right
off horseshoe bar, and there's 31 acres.
That would be ideal for either developing
new houses, you know, like custom homes, or

(44:00):
something like, uh, a pumpkin farm,
something, you know, christmas tree stuff
and my family gets excited about these
kinds of ideas because they're kind of
entrepreneurial.
And then you know it's like what do you
wish for?
Be careful.
What you wish for my mentality was, yeah,
it would be cool to go out there and see

(44:21):
the kids, or if you had your buddies out
there drinking some hard cider, let's go,
let's go hang out.
But, um, I, I can only imagine what goes
into doing, you know, built, starting it
from scratch, and so I've always thought,
well, what if you could partner with
somebody to put that experience together
and maybe you could contribute, however you,

(44:42):
you know, were able to, but somebody else
is sort of running the operations.
Your thoughts on that?
Have you thought about expanding somewhere
else, not necessarily my place?

Lee Bishop (44:49):
Well, it's not a hard no on your place.

Mark Haney (44:54):
Yeah, okay, it's always a discussion.
Okay, can we head over there, right?

Wayne Bishop (44:57):
now.

Mark Haney (44:57):
Yeah, let's go over there so it's the
perfect location, but I did drive down
Horseshoe Bar the other day and I saw
another place that was doing something
similar to that, so it would be smaller
than ours would be, though ours would be
special.
I'm not the thirstiest guy we've been along,
so but anyway, yeah, it just seems like
such a cool idea, especially when I have a
bunch of grandkids that could put them to

(45:18):
work.

Lee Bishop (45:18):
Yeah.
I think, you know, you always got to stay
open to business opportunities and if the
right one were to hit us, you got to take
advantage.
And I think that's the mentality we haven't
had, that, at least in a while.
The right opportunity come up to where
we're like let's get that farm and let's,
you know, make another Bishop's Pumpkin

(45:40):
Farm.
But you know, I think we're always open to
that.

Mark Haney (45:44):
We're always open to ideas.
Well, maybe if you guys have time right
after the show we'll drive over there, but
if not, I you know, no pressure.

Lee Bishop (45:49):
It's just a podcast.

Mark Haney (45:53):
You can paint me a picture of what it might
look like or something, uh, what the pros
and cons are.
So, um, anyway, uh, what did I not ask you?
Like, I want to make sure you have a chance
to really tell your story the way that you
want it to to be told.

Wayne Bishop (46:08):
You know, um, we, we belong to a couple of
organizations, and, and so we, uh, of what
I call the funny farmers in in the country.
You know that that do similar things to
what we do, and so we visited a lot of
farms.
We talked to a lot of people that do
similar things to what we do, and so we
visited a lot of farms.
We talked to a lot of people.
The thing that I think we do better than
all of them is is the food, and, you know,

(46:31):
started from, uh, my mom's bakery, and we
make a pumpkin pie from, from an heirloom
variety pumpkin that we grow, and, um, I
actually take credit for saving that
pumpkin from.
You know, there was a time where it was
really hard to get seed because nobody was
growing it anymore.
And uh, there there are a bunch of things

(46:55):
we do like that and we make.
We make food from scratch.
We make caramel for our caramel apples, we
press apples into cider and now we ferment
it to hard cider and and, um, we, we, we go
to the extra work to to make the food good
and and, um, I don't know, I'm just I'm

(47:18):
kind of a food guy.
When I travel, I always remember what I ate,
especially if it was good yeah and and I
associate that with with my memories, like
you know.
Oh yeah, we visited this um.
You know, I was in nuremberg, germany, and
I I had the most awesome german sausage I
ever and I and I started eating mustard.
I never ate mustard before in my life, but
I ate it the way the germans do, and now I

(47:39):
like mustard you know, it's, it's, uh.
So to me, that's the thing that has been
the predominant driver for our growth.
You know, and now we have these rides, we
have a full day's experience.
If you want to bring your family out, I
still think it's the food that brings
people out.
Interesting.

Mark Haney (47:58):
Is it you got to?
I know, I believe you pay to park, you pay
to get in and then you can buy the stuff.
How does what's the mechanics in terms of
no, I.

Lee Bishop (48:06):
I think that's.
Another thing that makes us really unique
is we're open 65.
I'm pushing 70 days a year and we charge
parking 12 days a year, just october,
friday, saturdays and sundays, and the rest
of the year we're admission free okay you
can walk in and choose your own adventure.
If you just want to come in and have dinner
and a hard cider, that is totally okay.
Wow, if you want to come and just ride the

(48:27):
rides and not buy anything else, that is
totally okay.

Mark Haney (48:29):
So it could be a real, affordable night out
for a family that's on a real budget.

Wayne Bishop (48:33):
You can bring your own picnic, if you want
to.

Lee Bishop (48:35):
Wow, there's not a lot of places in the
world that do that still.

Wayne Bishop (48:40):
That's really special.
They're charging you $30 to get in the game.

Lee Bishop (48:42):
Oh yeah, santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is like
that too, but I think that really makes us
different in our industry.
I don't care if you spend $5 with us or
$100 with us, just come and have a good
night.
That's what's important, I think, to us as
a family.

Mark Haney (48:59):
That's really cool.
Okay, anything else I didn't ask you.
I had to let your dad uh chime in for his
uh, his thoughts on the uh, on the food no,
I don't, I don't think so.

Lee Bishop (49:09):
I think we had a lot of, uh, good stuff
today.

Mark Haney (49:11):
Well, congratulations and thank you for
coming on the show.
Thank you for making so many families happy,
employing people and getting them their
christmas money and, uh, maybe for a lot of
people, their first job those experiences
that we get in our early years whether it
be going to the pumpkin farm and grabbing a
pumpkin or a pumpkin pie or just our first

(49:32):
jobs we want to be in a wholesome place
like what you guys offer, so thank you very
much.
Well, thank you, mark, for having us.

Lee Bishop (49:38):
We appreciate it, you bet.