For decades, a slice of rural life sat along Mountain Road in Pasadena: Schramm’s Turkey Farm, a family-run operation that fed holiday tables, sold pumpkins and Christmas trees, and – for many locals – became a beloved part of the community’s calendar. Though the 213-acre farm itself no longer exists, its story still lingers in neighborhood memories, historic tokens and the housing developments that eventually replaced its fields.
The Schramm family farm traces its roots to a long tradition of mixed agriculture in Anne Arundel County. Family members grew vegetables, fruits and flowers, raised livestock and later added seasonal enterprises such as Christmas trees. At one stage the Schramm holdings stretched into the hundreds of acres, and the farm supported generations of relatives and seasonal workers. Emma Schramm, who passed away in 2023 at age 94, and Louis Schramm, who passed in 2020 at age 94, were two of the family members who worked the fields and sold the farm’s produce.
By the mid-20th century the Schramms had become well known for raising turkeys and selling them directly from their Mountain Road location. For local families in Pasadena and surrounding communities, Schramm’s was the place to pick up a fresh turkey for Thanksgiving or a wagon-load of pumpkins in the fall. One particular highlight was the stand’s giant jack-o-lantern that was displayed out front, in which children were invited to reach in and grab a goodie bag from. The farm’s roadside stand and seasonal markets became a ritual for many households during harvest season and holidays.
From the 1940s through the late 1980s and into the early 1990s, Schramm’s remained a local institution. Newspaper recollections describe families flocking to the farm to buy turkeys and seasonal goods; the business combined practical farm work with the kind of personal service and charm that made small farm stands popular gathering points before big-box retail and supermarket dominance.
In 1993, it was announced that the Schramms’ property had been sold to Koch Homes. Emma Schramm cited in an article to The Baltimore Sun in September 1993 that part of the reason for the sale was that the siblings were simply ready to retire, and none of them had any children to whom they could pass the property.
In 1994, Koch Homes began construction on Farmington Village – a residential development that included plans for approximately 430 homes. Today, the bustling neighborhood includes a community pool, clubhouse, tennis/pickleball courts, and walking/biking trails – all on the very same property that used to house thousands of turkeys.
While the days of Pasadena’s quaint turkey farm are long gone, there remains one piece of the now-developed property that has been left untouched. A small, fenced-in cemetery, now overgrown with shrubbery, is located within Farmington Village and dates back to before 1909. The gravesite is home to the Phelps family, who owned the farm prior to the Schramms. Koch Homes honored the Schramm’s request to leave the cemetery undisturbed.
Although the barns and fields are gone, the Schramm name endures in local memory. Obituaries and profiles of family members who grew up on and worked the farm preserve details about their lives and the daily work of running a mixed agricultural operation. Community forums, social media posts and local history articles keep stories of the farm – its turkey sales, fall displays and picker’s-check tokens – alive for those who grew up with them. For many longtime residents, Schramm’s Turkey Farm still represents the kind of family-centered, seasonal commerce that used to dot the region’s roadsides.
