COEUR d’ALENE — Boots scuffled in the soft earth and little voices filled the chill air as children went in search of the perfect pumpkin. 

Thorin Treantenou, a first grade student, smiled as she lifted her prize — small, round and orange — with gloved hands. 

“It’s fun,” she said. 

This October, for the first time, lifelong Coeur d’Alene resident Rob Lunceford opened a you-pick pumpkin patch on his family’s farm on Seltice Way — and Monday morning, he opened it to more than 100 kindergarten and first grade students from Winton Elementary School.

Lunceford’s parents bought the farm, just east of where Y-J Packing Company and stockyards was located, in 1952. 

“It was quite a place to grow up,” Lunceford said, recalling times when he and other children cut through the lumber yard to reach the river. “There always seemed to be some kind of mischief.” 

In those days, the children had no notion of being home by the time the streetlights came on, Lunceford said with a smile, because there were no streetlights. 

Coeur d’Alene has changed a great deal since Lunceford’s childhood. Indeed, the family farm seems almost out of place, surrounded by apartment buildings and other structures. 

“There’s not many holdouts along Seltice Way that haven’t gone to development,” he said. 

After passing a wall of hay bales painted with a welcoming message and taking turns sitting inside a tractor, each child got to choose a pumpkin.

Many varieties could be seen: mysterious blue dolls, warty knuckleheads, striking orange and yellow fireballs, Cinderella pumpkins with a shape reminiscent of the fairytale carriage. Some kids opted for diminutive white pumpkins or small orange ones; others struggled to heft large pumpkins, their breath blooming in the cold air. 

Lunceford attended Winton as a child, so it brought a special joy to see a crop of today’s Winton Wolves pick their way along the rows of pumpkins at his family’s farm. He said he might’ve gotten more enjoyment out of the field trip than the kids, but it was hard to know for sure, with the children grinning from ear to ear. 

“It makes it all worthwhile,” he said, looking out across the pumpkin patch. “My mom would’ve loved this.” 

There’s no admission fee at the farm. Visitors simply pay for what they pick — and if all they want to do is take photos together among the hay bales, sunflowers and plentiful pumpkins, that’s all right, too. 

The Lunceford Family Farm Pumpkin Patch, 3377 Seltice Way in Coeur d’Alene, is open every Friday, Saturday and Sunday in October from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

    David Perez and Paislee Rast walk through a pumpkin patch at the Lunceford Family Farm in Coeur d'Alene.
  

    Rob Lunceford, who opened the Lunceford Family Farm Pumpkin Patch to the public this fall, speaks with Winton Elementary School Library Manager Sharyn Freemyers, right, while Winifred St. Mars, left, shows off a tiny pumpkin.