Pick-your-own pumpkins at Costa Mesa’s Hana Field lets anyone be a Halloween hero
For anyone tired of rifling through cardboard grocery bins, looking for picturesque Halloween pumpkins but instead finding uninspired orbs with no stems and even less curb appeal, Tanaka Farms has a solution — U-pick pumpkins in Costa Mesa.
At Hana Field, a 30-acre flower field nestled between the 405 and 55 Freeways and (aptly) located off Sunflower Avenue, visitors can stroll through 8 acres of pumpkins and select their own perfect gourds right off the vines, according to field manager Brandon Flores.
“You get the experience of harvesting your own pumpkin,” Flores said during a visit Friday. “You come here, and you can say, ‘I picked it myself.’ Home Depot doesn’t give you that. Grocery stores don’t give you that.”
The cost of entry entitles guests to pick either one pumpkin or a vase of up to 15 fresh sunflowers, still radiantly growing on the property after making their debut this summer.
Hana Fields is leased and operated by fourth-generation farmer Ken Tanaka, alongside parents Glenn and Shirley, who run Tanaka Farms in Irvine as a working farm and agritourism business.
Open Fridays through Sundays throughout October, the Costa Mesa pumpkin patch also features tractor-pulled wagon rides, smaller gourds and autumn-themed goodies for purchase and a craft section where kids can paint what they pick.
The seasonal spectacle drew a handful of visitors to the enormous urban farmstead Friday, where parents and children marched over seemingly endless rows of pumpkin vines looking for Jack-o’-Lanterns and seasonal centerpieces.
Loma Linda resident Jenni Black came with 4-year-old daughter Ember “Emi” Chancellor, who wore a special skeleton costume for the occasion.
“She is very much into everything spooky,” said Black, balancing a huge round pumpkin on her left shoulder as Emi carried her own small fruit. “She started seeing Halloween stuff everywhere, so she wanted to come out — she just wants to pick a pumpkin.”
The pair searched far and wide before cutting a single stem. Then Emi found one that caught her eye.
“I wanted something small,” she said of a gourd about 8 inches in diameter.
Nearby, Placentia parents Bill and Kimi McAdam brought 7-year-old daughter Aubrey out, after hearing about the Hana Field patch from a Tanaka Farms email.
Dad wanted something “round and clean,” while mom was looking for good coloring and one flat side for carving. Aubrey, like Emi, was looking for one just her size.
“I’m the one who carves, and they come up with the designs,” Bill McAdam said, adding most of the Jack-o’-Lantern faces have been friendly.
“I love the idea you can cut your own off the vine,” Kimi McAdam said of the farm. “And I love that it’s quiet. It’s like we have the whole place to ourselves.”
Creating a field that would not only provide fresh produce but create stunning photo opportunities for people to share on social media was exactly what Ken Tanaka had in mind when he leased the Costa Mesa property from the Sakioka family, which owns the land and are friends of the Tanaka family.
“The idea was to do a flower field. There really isn’t anything like it around here,” Tanaka said. “From the 55 Freeway and the 405 Freeway overpass you can see all the flowers — it sells itself.”
Employees began working the land in late 2020 and opened in May. The past year has been a process of learning, through trial and error, what works for visitors and how to rotate seasonal crops to ensure there will be flowers every month.
Attendance at last week’s grand opening was light, but Tanaka expects interest will pick up as more people hear about the Costa Mesa pumpkin patch and as a similar attraction at the farm in Irvine begins to book up. So far, he said, the feedback has been great.
Newport Beach resident Valerie Goeser came out to the field Friday with daughter Tay, 25. They decided to pick one pumpkin and one vase of sunflowers for their fall home display.
“We came in for a little pumpkin and got the biggest one here,” said Tay, struggling to carry her selection in an overburdened cloth grocery bag. “It called to us.”
Hana Field opened initially on Mother’s Day weekend. Ken Tanaka estimates about 12,000 people have visited since.
Valerie Goeser said she likes the idea of picking their own produce right from the land where it grew, especially since other flower fields and pumpkin patches only let you choose previously harvested goods.
“We love sunflowers, and they had big, huge ones. They’re so fresh and gorgeous,” she said.
The pumpkins were another draw and a throwback to the mommy-daughter pumpkin patch days of yore.
“We’re nerdy like that,” Tay Goeser said.
Hana Fields is located at 427 Anton Blvd. Admission costs $20 per person and includes one free pumpkin or one free vase of 15 sunflower stems. Children under 3 and members of the military get in free. Parking costs $10 and pre-registration online at tanakafarms.com/hana-pumpkin-patch is encouraged.
All the latest on Orange County from Orange County.
Get our free TimesOC newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Daily Pilot.
