The Barn

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Our Story

The Barn was started in July of 2007 by Al and Karen Noftz. Al had been a vegetable farmer all his life and also farmed and worked full time as a Local 150 Operator. He met Karen in 2002, when she came to take pictures for him of what was left of a disasterous barn fire. She came to work for him as a bookkeeper and one thing led to another. They were married in 2005 at her home in Garden Prairie, Il. In 2006, they moved to Belvidere. Al needed something to keep busy with after retirement and started growing pumpkins. This venture proved successful and we added sweetcorn in 2009. Al built all the wagons that the crops are displayed on. Karen did the painting. There was always a discussion as to what color they should be as Al was a International Harvester collector and Karen was a John Deere collector.

Each year a new variety of squash or gourds or pumpkins was added. In 2010, they planted indian corn and cut stalks for bundles with an old corn binder. This has been a huge success. A newer (older) and better shape binder was found and the stalk bundles got better. Along with indian corn, straw bales were introduced. Regular size bales, along with medium and small sizes. A good friend built us a smaller baler and we keep it busy. As of 2015, we plant 6 varieties of pumpkins, 7 varieties of squash and 6 varieties of gourds, many dried from previous years for decorating.

In 2016, after a successful planting season and a wonderful sweetcorn season, Al Noftz passed away at the age of 70, on Sept 3, missing his 71st birthday by two days. Seventeen acres of pumpkins, 6 acres of squash and gourds and 62 acres of field corn needed to be picked. Devastated by this tremendous loss, Karen, with the wonderful help of many family and friends, harvested it all. It was the best pumpkin season ever, she believes that he was there in spirit.

Although the season was not very good for vegetables in 2017, too much rain, not enough rain, The Barn hopes to be open in 2018. This is a special tribute to Al, who always said, he’d rather give it away, than let it rot in the fields. Many scouts, nursing homes and children young and old were recipients of a pumpkin. He made friends every day.

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