In a world where it’s become nearly impossible to unplug, Motley’s Farm in south Little Rock (13724 Sandy Ann Drive) offers a homespun refuge from the chaos of daily life. A bona fide family operation founded in 1982, the farm is now run by husband-and-wife duo Mike and Keesha Motley, who took over from Mike’s parents, Randy and Linda Motley, in 2023.
The Motleys specialize in providing Central Arkansas with its annual supplies of Natural State-grown pumpkins and Christmas trees, but a visit to the farm involves so much more than seasonal wares. Each year’s guests, including over 5,000 students who stop by on fall field trips, can expect an ever-increasing roster of activities and attractions such as pig races, magic shows, a 300-foot slide, a petting zoo, a three-story wooden pirate ship, fields packed with photo-friendly zinnias and sunflowers, and tons of fresh-made grub.
We chatted with the Motleys right before the start of their busy season, which runs this year from Sept. 26-Nov. 1 and Nov. 14-Dec. 13. You can find more information at motleyspumpkinpatch.com and motleystreefarm.com.
Do you grow all of the pumpkins and Christmas trees you sell?
Mike: We have a finite amount of land here and it’s hard to keep up with the demand, so we grow some of the pumpkins but ship in a lot, which is a common model for agritourism. We work with farmers in the state that have huge farms. Christmas tree farming is the heavy agricultural lift of what we do. We produce almost 100% of those.
What does growing and caring for pumpkins and Christmas trees entail?
Mike: A lot of irrigation. When you have really hot, really dry periods like we’ve had, you have to control for that. If you’re having record highs all of the time, that can slow things down. You’re always surveying for one of about 10 types of bugs that might try to eat up your vines, pumpkins or gourds.
The difference with the trees is that they all have to be individually hand-trimmed because they don’t naturally grow into a beautiful Christmas tree shape. We’re growing, at any one time, thousands of trees, and we do a kind of crop rotation because it takes between about four and six years for one to mature.
Keesha: Not every tree is going to be for sale every year because we need a certain percentage of 7-foot trees, a certain percentage of 2-foot trees, and so on. Sometimes, someone will be like, “This is the perfect tree. Can I have this one?” And sometimes we give in. But, for the most part, we have to save it, so next year we can have a 13-foot tree.
Mike: People come out early and tag their tree. Kids love it because that means Christmas is on.
You offer a surprising number of attractions and activities at the farm, but the one I’m most curious about is the pig races.
Mike: The pig race is real live pigs, running around a dirt track like a miniature version of Oaklawn with four to six piglets — usually siblings — that are about 8 to 12 weeks old when we start. There are four races a day, three laps per race. They have little hurdles they have to jump over in one race. Everyone gets to cheer for their favorite pig. And they’re trained with treats. They have a really good life. We have a pig race announcer, which is usually my dad. He has a little headset.
Keesha: It’s his claim to fame. Everywhere you go in Little Rock with Randy, people recognize him as the pig race guy. He has a lot of jokes. It’s a comedy routine.
The Motleys Credit: Katie Childs Photo
What’s new this year?
Mike: This year, we’re adding what we’re calling our “corn castle,” which is a 30-by-50 pole barn that will be filled with 25,000 pounds of corn kernels as a sensory play pit. We already had one that was kind of small, and then we visited other farms and thought, “Yeah, this should be a lot bigger,” so we expanded it.
I found a quote on your website from the Arkansas Times praising y’all’s burger offerings. Talk to me about the food situation out at Motley’s Farm.
Mike: We do burgers. We do barbecue. Popcorn. Snowcones. Twenty-five or 30 flavors of fudge.
Keesha: The burgers are really good. They’re similar to the burgers at Midtown Billiards. We essentially have multiple restaurants within this crazy business. And the food here is not just good enough for a pumpkin patch; it’s better than you think for a pumpkin patch. Better than necessary for a pumpkin patch. That’s our slogan. [laughs] We’ve had a huge list of really talented people in the restaurant business work out here with us. Even Adam Sweet from Problem Child has helped us.
What other agritourism farms in Arkansas do you recommend?
Mike: Peebles Farm in Augusta, Jackson Farm near Jonesboro and Rivercrest Orchard in Fayetteville. They’re all unique. Nobody’s doing it quite the same way.
What keeps you doing this work?
Mike: You’ll have a 5-year-old say, “This is the best day of my life.” That’s kind of the best thing you can hear from a kid in a world with social media and people being on their phone all day. We want people to take pictures and post them on social media, but in terms of what kind of experience this is, it could be the ’80s or the ’70s. It’s a throwback kind of thing. If people are looking for something where they can turn off the noise of what’s going on in the world for a day, you can do that here.
Bonus questions:
Favorite book?
Anything by David Sedaris
Favorite movie?
“Raising Arizona” (1987)
Favorite restaurants in Little Rock?
La Hacienda, The Oyster Bar, Rex’s