What to Expect: Tips for a Visit to an Apple orchard, Pumpkin fest or Fall Festival!

Find a local pumpkin patch here!

What to Expect: Tips for a Visit to an Apple orchard, Pumpkin fest or Fall Festival!

Never been to a Fall farm festival, like an apple festival, apple pick-your-own farm or pumpkin festival? Thinking of going, but you'd like a better idea of what it's like before you go? Well, here's the page for you!

Fall farm festivals are fun for families and couples! depending upon the farms specialty, they can include any or all of the following:

pick your own apples
pumpkin patch
corn mazes
haybale mazes
hay rides
wagon rides
pony rides
exhibitions of apple butter making
apple cider pressing
farm animal petting zoo
pig races (I kid you not)
corn cannons
face painting
concessions with fresh homemade apple pies, hot dogs, burgers, bbq, ice cream, cotton candy

Pick Your Own Apples

Get exactly the apples your want, right off the tree! And the trees are low to the ground; it's easy! Just like... well, picking an apple off a tree! To find a PYO apple orchard, visit my other website, www.pickyourown.org

Corn Maze

Here's a corn maze. You'll notice that the rows of corn between the paths are about 10 feet thick, so you can't see or make your way except by the paths. For more information, see this page!

Corn cannons

An air-pressure driven cannon that fires ears of corn. Who thought this up? Aim it at the target's and fire away. A working knowledge of physics or having served time in the artillery helps.

Kid's Stuff

For the small children, there are cut-outs to pose in for photos (On the right, that's "Uncle Shuck" of the maze of the same name, and myself (Blake), on the left.)

Pig Races

Arnold Ziffle lives! (although I think Fred Ziffle bought the farm some years ago...) You didn't believe me when I said there were pig races, did you. The photos don't lie. It is just too funny. Ya gotta see it.

What more can I say?

And of course, they usually have pumpkins for sale, too!

Tips for a more fun visit!

Most farms don't charge for entry, unless they have a lot of free entertainment once you are in.

PYO apple prices are usually less than prepicked.

Sometimes there are fees for particular events, but hayrides are usually free, too.

You may want to bring your own drinks, water bottle and snacks to cut costs.

In many places, the temperature can drop quickly in the late afternoon and after dark, so be sure to bring appropriate clothing. It could be hilly and if it has rained, muddy, so where old trainers or hiking boots, but not your new gym Air-Jordan Nikes. Speaking of rain, if it looks like it might, bring a rain jacket and /or umbrella! That paths are usually very wide, so that an umbrella is not a problem.

I haven't experienced many bugs (e.g., mosquitoes) at all at a Fall farm festival, but if your area is some place like the upper midwest, where mosquitoes reach the size of small aircraft, or New England, which has biting flies that have piranha teeth, you may want to bring some Deet repellent, like "Off Deep Woods" (use at least 15% Deet by concentration for maximum effectiveness).

In the car, have a spare t-shirt, some baby wipes or towels to clean up if it has rained recently, so you don't muck up the car and have a dry, unsweaty top for the ride home.