Thieves Took Nearly 200 Pumpkins From a Young Family's Field Just Before Their Big Day. Here's the 70-Page Plan That Gets Your Farm Safe, Secure and Visitor-Ready in 30 Days, So It Never Happens to You.

From the desk of Stephen Loke
Founder, AgritourismSuccess.com
whose farm is featured in Bloomberg News and Asahi Shimbun

Dear Fellow Farmer,

In September 2026, a young family farm in Capron, Illinois, was getting ready for the biggest day of its first season.

Meyers Family Farm had been picked as one of two new farms on the Boone County Farm Stroll, a free October tour that sends local families from farm to farm. For a first-year farm, that's a dream: families who already want to buy what you grow, driving straight to your gate.

Then, shortly before the Stroll, someone took their pumpkins straight from the field. Nearly 200 of them. About 95% of what was left unpicked.

The pumpkins weren't insured. The farm cancelled picking from its own field and offered refunds. And the family said what hurt most wasn't the money. It was thinking about the families and children who had planned their day around that field.

Here's the part that should worry you: the Meyers family did nothing unusual. They were busy, new and trusting. Just like most of us in the week before a big day.

The Ugly Truth About Opening Your Gate

The day you open your gate to paying visitors, you stop being just a farmer. You're suddenly running a car park, a public toilet, a playground, a food stand, a bank and, on a bad day, a first-aid post.

Nobody trained you for that. And the farms that get hurt are rarely the careless ones. They're the busy ones.

One Monday evening in October 2011, a family with a three-week-old baby got lost in a seven-acre corn maze at Connors Farm in Massachusetts. The maze had closed at 6 p.m. and night was falling. The mother called 911. A police officer with a tracking dog found them within about a minute of arriving, just 25 feet from the road. Nobody was hurt. But a map with a phone number on it, and a last-entry time well before dark, could have stopped it happening at all.

Look at what the numbers say:

✔  About 33 children a day were injured in agriculture-related incidents in the US, and animals were the leading cause of injury to children visiting farms. (National Children's Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety)

✔  156 disease outbreaks were linked to animals in public settings in the US in the 10 years to 2020, making 6,388 people ill. (NASPHV Compendium, 2023)

✔  In a Minnesota State Fair survey, 57% of people didn't wash their hands after visiting an agritourism venue. (UMASH, 2016)

✔  Clean restrooms topped the list of what consumers care about most when choosing a farm to visit. (Florida Farm Bureau)

✔  US federal crop insurance covers natural events like drought and hail. It excludes losses caused by people, so stolen crops generally aren't covered. (USDA Risk Management Agency)

None of these problems is hard to prevent. The trouble is that nobody hands farmers a simple system. The advice is scattered across a dozen extension websites, insurance policies are written in a language of their own, and most safety guides are written for theme parks, not family farms.

So I wrote the guide I wish someone had handed me.

Who Am I to Show You This?

My name is Stephen Loke. I run Bloopy Durians, a durian farm in Bentong, Malaysia. My farm has been featured in Bloomberg News and Asahi Shimbun.

Visitors come to my farm from all over the world, from America, Russia and Canada to the UK, Australia, China, Singapore, Indonesia and beyond. Many companies send their staff and management to the farm. Two universities have each sent a busload of students. And we supplied durians to a Mayor of Kuala Lumpur tourism event, where Kuala Lumpur City Hall gave our team a plaque of appreciation.

And our seasons are short, about four to five months a year, so every open day matters. One bad day in a short season hurts. I don't want you to learn that the hard way.

So I've put everything into one practical guide, built on official guidance from university extension services, the CDC, the UK Health and Safety Executive, the USDA, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission and the National Weather Service. It's called:

The Visitor-Ready Farm

How to Make Your Farm Safe, Secure and Welcoming for Paying Visitors, on a Small Budget, Before Your Gate Opens

It covers the seven places visitor days go wrong: arrival and parking, toilets and handwashing, hazards, security and theft, law and insurance, people and emergencies, and your busiest hour (food, crowds and kids). Each gets its own chapter, with plain-English explanations, true stories and printable worksheets.

This is the new expanded edition: 70 pages. It starts with a 35-point Scorecard that tells you which chapter to read first, and a one-page plan for anyone opening this weekend. It ends with a 30-day plan, opening and closing checklists, and the Printable Toolkit: 7 ready-to-print signs and 8 worksheets you can put to work the same day.

And it's built on solid ground. Key facts are backed by 52 cited sources, including the CDC, the UK Health and Safety Executive, the USDA, the FDA, Penn State, Rutgers, the University of Tennessee and the National Weather Service.

  Get Instant Access for $27 →  

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Here's Just a Small Sample of What You'll Discover Inside

✔  Opening this weekend? The 10 things to do first, in order, most of them in under an hour. (Page 5)

✔  The 35-point Visitor-Ready Scorecard that shows, in about 10 minutes, which part of your farm is most likely to cause a bad day. (Page 9)

✔  The "stranger drive": a free test that shows you where your signs are missing between the main road and your gate. (Page 14)

✔  The 3-line Parking Math that tells you how many acres your busiest hour really needs, plus the accessible-parking numbers. (Page 15)

✔  Roughly how many portable toilets you need for your crowd, and the UK government formula for sizing handwashing stations. (Pages 18 to 21)

✔  Why hand gel isn't enough after animal contact, and what an outbreak that made 93 people ill taught every petting farm. (Page 20)

✔  The Hazard Walk: see your farm the way a curious six-year-old does, and pick your three "never" places. (Page 24)

✔  The hayride checklist and the fire-service rules for corn mazes. (Page 25)

✔  The 5 layers of farm security and the 7 moves that protect your crop, cash and kit in the week before a big event. (Pages 30 to 35)

✔  The "pumpkin partner" play that can save your event when theft, hail or drought takes your crop. (Page 30)

✔  Where to point your cameras so you film a number plate, not the back of someone's head. (Page 32)

✔  The one thing you must never do if you catch a thief in your field. (Page 34)

✔  Why crop insurance generally won't pay for stolen crops, and the 12 questions to email your insurer before next season. (Pages 37 and 41)

✔  What agritourism liability laws do and don't protect, with examples from North Carolina, Ontario and the UK. (Page 38)

✔  The lost-child flowchart, storm plan and heat plan your helpers can follow without you. (Pages 44 to 45)

✔  The one number that runs your whole day, and how to turn it into parking, toilets and sinks. (Page 48)

✔  The food rules to check before you sell a single pie, jar or cup of cider, and what to ask every food truck before it parks. (Page 50)

✔  Why grass under a play area isn't good enough, and what the US Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends instead. (Page 51)

✔  The 30-day Visitor-Ready Plan, plus opening-day and closing-time checklists to tape inside your farm stand. (Pages 53 to 56)

✔  7 ready-to-print signs, from "Please Wash Your Hands" to "Lost? Meet Here", plus a template for your legal warning sign. (Pages 58 to 61)

✔  8 printable worksheets: the Busiest-Hour Calculator, Farm Map, Budget Planner, Staff Role Cards, Incident Report, Emergency Contact Card, Pre-Event Security Checklist and After-Season Review. (Pages 62 to 68)

Take a Look Inside

Here are 12 of the 70 pages, so you can see exactly what you're getting. Tap any picture to see it full size.

1 OF 6  ·  PAGES 9 AND 10

The 35-Point Visitor-Ready Scorecard

About ten minutes and a pen. Five yes-or-no questions in each of seven areas tell you exactly which chapter to read first.

2 OF 6  ·  PAGES 28 AND 32

The 2 a.m. Problem: Security and Theft

Seven moves that protect your crop, cash and kit in the week before a big event, and exactly where to point your cameras.

3 OF 6  ·  PAGES 37 AND 41

The Insurance Gap and 12 Questions for Your Insurer

Why crop insurance covers hail but not thieves, the four layers of legal protection, and the 12 questions to email your agent before next season.

4 OF 6  ·  PAGES 47 AND 48

New Chapter 7: The Busiest Hour

What a family lost in a seven-acre corn maze teaches every farm, and the one number that runs your parking, toilets and sinks.

5 OF 6  ·  PAGES 44 AND 55

The Lost-Child Flowchart and Opening-Day Checklist

Print the lost-child flowchart for your farm stand, and run the 15-minute opening checklist every morning before the gate opens.

6 OF 6  ·  PAGES 58 AND 62

The Printable Toolkit: Signs and Worksheets

Seven ready-to-print signs and eight worksheets, including the Busiest-Hour Calculator, so you can put the book to work the same day.

That's 12 pages out of 70. The other 58 are waiting for you, all for $27.

  Yes! Send Me the 70-Page Guide for $27 →  

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