OUR STORY

Meet the Franklins

John and Cathy Franklin are the owners of Local Pumpkin. We are Tri-City natives and this is where we have raised our five children. John was raised in Pasco and Cathy in Richland. We live in Pasco on two acres which is the home to Local Pumpkin headquarters.

We started Local Pumpkin because of Cathy’s passion for simple home cooking made with quality, local, fresh ingredients and John’s passion for running his own family business.

Cathy knew local and organic produce was best, but it was hard to find outside of going to the various farmers’ markets, so…

Getting Started

In the fall of 2014 we started Local Pumpkin, with the goal of making it easier for Tri-Citians to eat local. As with a lot of small businesses we started on our dinning room table. We asked on Facebook if anyone would signup to have local produce delivered to their home. 25 people said “YES” and we were off and running. We purchased some produce boxes, went down to the Pasco Farmers Market and purchased produce from a few farmers, brought the produce home, packed the produce in the produce boxes and drove around the Tri-Cities and delivered the boxes to our new customers.

Continuing To Grow...

In 2016, we converted the 70-year-old barn on our property to accommodate our workspace needs. Our 2 sons and 2 sons in law helped us with the project. Once we were in our own place, we hired weighers, packers, and drivers. We began doing deliveries year-round, the number of customers growing each year. In the non-local growing months, we started sourcing produce from organic farms in California, Arizona and Mexico. We added meat, milk, and eggs all from local farms.

In 2020 we doubled our deliveries (do you remember what happened) for the year, giving us an excellent opportunity to partner with other small businesses to offer additional items; baked goods, flours, jams, yogurt, cheeses, soaps and flowers.

Connect With Us Today!

We know it's easy to get caught up in the time-consuming habit of driving to the grocery store. But when you shop with us, you shorten the supply chain

2024 marks our 10th year of business. We have delivered over 180,000 boxes of goodness throughout the greater Tri-Cities!

And since 2022 we started farming our own market garden. We use organic and regenerative farming practices. We are thrilled to offer the freshest produce that is grown with out sprays and chemicals.

We still love meeting farmers, vendors and customers who believe like we do, that food, health and community are important and they go together.

We continue to add more and more to the store, specializing in locally grown or crafted items.

The quality of our products and produce is important to us because we feed our family from the Local Pumpkin store too. We love offering a great variety of local and organic.

Starting our little farm has made us even more appreciative of the hard work (and faith) that goes into growing produce.

It feels different when you know the stories behind the food you purchase.

We hope you join us on this journey!