Along busy U.S. 33 in Mercer County, traffic often slows or even stops when drivers catch a glimpse of Karen Elshoff’s roadside stand.
As you might expect, that congestion hits a peak in October — prime time for the person known in these parts as the “Pumpkin Lady.”
Elshoff, a member of Saint Marys-based Midwest Electric, paints hundreds of pumpkins each year and sells them from the stand she’s set up at the edge of the small burg of Neptune. Her subjects range from whimsical cartoon characters and Halloween monsters to sports themes and awe-inspiring superheroes.
Hobby turns a profit
When Karen was growing up, her family grew pumpkins and gourds in their backyard garden near Celina. “I read a story in one of my dad’s farm magazines about a girl who painted pumpkins instead of carving jack-o’-lanterns,” she says. “I thought, ‘This is definitely something I can do.’ That was 30 years ago and I’m still doing it.”
Karen Elshof, also known as the “Pumpkin Lady,” features her hand-painted pumpkins on a roadside stand.
After she read that story, she rounded up all the gourds and pumpkins she could get her hands on and painted them, just for fun. One year, she decided to take a load to a craft show in nearby Fort Recovery and, to her surprise and delight, she sold every single one.
She immediately got busy and painted more and set them on a picnic table in the front yard. “People would come to the door at all hours in the fall wanting to buy pumpkins,” she says. “We knew this was not going to work.” That was when she decided to relocate her sales to the current location at the Neptune property, with a stand set up in the shadow of the family camper.
Pumpkin-painting process
What was once merely her own personal hobby has since become a family business — her husband, two daughters, and two sons-in-law all lend helping hands as the busy fall season approaches.
For starters, the garden no longer produces enough pumpkins to meet the demand, so the family travels to Amish produce auctions in Indiana to purchase pumpkins by the palletful.
Karen sits on the floor and pencils the designs by hand, using ideas gleaned from Pinterest, coloring books, comic books, movies, and even greeting cards. Other designs promote popular college teams like Ohio State and Notre Dame or professional teams like the Cleveland Browns and the Cincinnati Bengals.
“I’m not artistic but I like drawing silly faces,” she says. “We work assembly-line fashion in the garage with family members brushing on designated acrylic paint colors. It’s not unusual to have 20 pumpkins in various stages at any given time.”
Winding down
Elshoff uses a black paint pen to darken the outline and “neaten” the design. Later she sprays on a clear-coat finish, though even with that added protection, she warns customers about placing pumpkins in direct sunlight or allowing them to remain in the pouring rain, because neither of those is good for the longevity of any pumpkin.
The current “pumpkin house” is actually a carport she’s equipped with shelves to display her wares. The self-service operation is open dawn to dusk during the entire months of September and October. Her pumpkins range in price from $3 to $40 depending on size.
“Kids automatically run to the largest pumpkins,” she says with a smile. “Their moms end up pulling them over to smaller ones.”
Elshoff counts several generations among her clientele. People who once brought their children now come with grandchildren in tow. Even truck drivers pull over to buy pumpkins. There was a time when she accepted orders for custom designs, but given the time and effort involved, that’s no longer the case.
But she and the family do get to stop and take a breath during the winter months. “Business certainly tapers off the last two weeks of October,” she says. “And nobody is in the market for a pumpkin after Halloween.”
Karen’s Painted Pumpkins, 8140 U.S. Route 33, Celina (between Mercer and St. Marys). Find more on Facebook at www.facebook.com/neptunepumpkinlady.
