COLGATE, Wis. — Monday is the first day of fall, and Basse’s Taste of Country is ready for pumpkin-picking season even after some of its crop was hit by the historic floods.

"I always enjoyed growing things and I enjoyed growing like the giant sunflowers ... and as I've gotten older, I've changed that where I like to grow memories,” said Roger Basse, owner and manager of Basse’s Taste of Country.

Basse and his family have spent the last 26 years cultivating about 400 acres of farmland into an array of produce-picking, pig-racing, tractor-talking activities anyone can partake in.

"You just kind of go with the punches, with what Mother Nature gives you and with the grace of God that it all works out," Basse said.

Like many farmers, he says his livelihood is a gamble.

"We put all our mon

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