There’s a very big and hardworking family behind Hunsader Farms Pumpkin Festival

In a perfect world, there would be collectible cards for each member of the large extended Hunsader family, whose members annually work together each fall to put on the Hunsader Farms Pumpkin Festival in East Manatee, which drew a crowd of about 10,000 Sunday.

The mothers, fathers, siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles and in-laws who make up the family all have pitched in over the past 26 years to run the festival and, although they all desire to stay behind the scenes, it would be great to get to know more about the family behind the annual event.

While there is no guarantee the collectible cards would be popular, there is no doubting the popularity of the festival after all these years.

So far, the 2017 festival — now featuring everything from the Snooty-shaped tribute corn maze to the Sweeney Family Band to the Gunslinger Monster Truck Show to the American Wall of Death Motor Drome to Fearless Flores Motorcycle Stunts to the Exotic Bird Show to acres of food — has drawn about 40,000 people after four days of its six-day run. The festival concludes next Saturday and Sunday at 5500 County Road 675 in East Manatee.

“They are an amazing family,” loyal festival-goer Susie Longpre said Sunday. “I just think it’s wonderful for the families to come out and enjoy a good day where they don’t have to worry about a foul mouth or alcohol consumption. It’s just wonderful for families.”

Our imaginary Hunsader collectible card set would start with the coveted Connie Hunsader card, which is bound to be a rare one because, from it, one will learn how she and her late husband, Jim, started Hunsader Farms, initially just for its fertile land.

As the years passed, Connie and Jim Hunsader had five children, boys David and Mike and girls Linda, Cathy Raye and Mary Jo Baar.

Those seven hatched the idea of a fall festival.

“They had a produce stand and the rest was all pumpkins,” said Longpre of the first pumpkin festivals, which she attended. “It was just fields. There was no entertainment.”

The amazing thing about this imaginary Hunsader collectible set is that you could have gotten autographs on five of the first tier charter cards at the festival Sunday, with Connie, David, Linda, Cathy and Mary Jo in attendance.

Connie Hunsader was working the popcorn booth with daughters Linda, Cathy and Mary Jo and her granddaughter, Amanda Baar.

“After 26 of these it’s not as thrilling as it was, but it’s still pretty exciting,” Connie Hunsader said with a grin.

The bearded and smiling David operates the farm and festival now and could be found racing from one station to another Sunday, but family members said he would always make time to sign a kid’s collectible card if they existed.

“He loves seeing happy kids,” said his daughter, Rachel Sliker.

Of the original seven family members who started the festival, two were absent Sunday. Jim Hunsader has passed away, and Mike Hunsader, along with his wife, Trish, have stepped away from the festival and moved their family to their new farm in North Carolina.

Sons Mike and David have eight children between their two families. Those eight children and two spouses along with the spouses and children of the three daughters adds many branches to the family tree.

Whew. This is a large family, and it’s just the beginning. Add in all the aunts, uncles, first and second cousins and in-laws, and you end up with around 30 people.

One of the rarest and best Hunsader collectible cards of all would probably be that of 16-year-old Joey Baar, the son of Jim and Mary Jo Baar.

Joey, who has a priceless smile, has Down syndrome and is a leukemia survivor. He volunteers at the charity scarecrow-head-knockdown game in the children’s games area of the festival. That game was actually built by his grandfather, the late Jim Hunsader. It is about the oldest children’s game at the festival.

If you go to the festival next weekend and visit the scarecrow-head-knockdown game, there won’t be a collectible card for you, but Joey Baar will gladly take a picture or offer a hug.

It will be a collectible you will never forget.

This story was originally published October 22, 2017 at 6:01 PM with the headline "There’s a very big and hardworking family behind Hunsader Farms Pumpkin Festival."