NEW WINDSOR, Ill. — After throwing their old Jack o'lanterns out in the cattle pasture, the four DeSutter children were shocked to see a volunteer pumpkin patch.
"I was really surprised," eight-year-old Everly DeSutter said.
"We had a pumpkin patch without even trying," mother Adrienne DeSutter said.
After begging their mom for a lemonade stand for years, Adrienne decided a pumpkin stand could help cultivate life lessons.
"This is a perfect way to kind of give them that initial sense of working hard together, working as a family," she said.
She said each kid worked together to make the operation run smoothly. “I like to carry them," four-year-old Dax DeSutter said.
The family thought no one should go without a pumpkin and set up a "pay what you can, take what you want" system.
"You don’t have to pay. You can just pick a pumpkin," six-year-old Emalyn DeSutter said.
“It’s neat to see how the positive attitude really spread to everybody," Adrienne said.
However, pumpkins don't stop with the kids, but are a family tradition.
The DeSutter's "Grandpa Jim" owns a bigger pumpkin patch in the area. Dax said his grandpa even lent a helping a hand, bringing them 12 bigger pumpkins to give away.
In addition to saving up some of the money they made, the kids decided to give back to the community in another way.
After reading a book at the New Windsor library, the DeSutters decided to donate some of the money to buy books for the program.
"We went to it on Tuesday. It had a story about a pumpkin," Everly said. "It's called 'Pumpkin Jack'."
"We know that it is one of our wonderful community resources that the whole community benefits from," Adrienne said.
However, just like Jack, the DeSutters have kept a few pumpkins back, which they're hoping to carve some for Halloween and seed their harvest for next year.
"There's so much that can be learned when it comes to starting with the seed and watching things grow," Adrienne said.