By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant
After summer’s heat ebbs, the bright, cool days of autumn bring welcome relief as well as some farm festivals. In addition to fun activities, fall festivals also include farm-fresh fall favorites like apples, cider and pumpkins. Plan to check one out this year.
• Sept. 14-15 — Behling Orchards Fall Fun Weekend, Mexico
www.behlingorchards.com
Enjoy activities including wagon rides, apple picking and children’s play land with ponies, mazes, bouncers, zombie paintball and a Ferris wheel.
• Sept. 21 — Fun on the Farm, Seneca Castle
www.ontariocountyfunonthefarm.com
Enjoy farm-based games, educational wagon ride tours, samples of local foods and beverages, vendor booths and the farm animal petting zoo provided by area farms.
• Sept. 21-22 — Ontario Orchards Fall Jamboree, Sterling
www.ontarioorchards.com/shop-local/fall-jamboree
Visitors can enjoy a series of games, a corn maze, hay wagon rides, wine tasting, crafts, face painting, and apple and pumpkin picking.
• Sept. 15 – Oct. 31 The Great Pumpkin Farm, Clarence
www.greatpumpkinfarm.com
It hosts its fall event weekends. Look forward to a five-acre corn maze, zombie paintball train, jumping pillow, pumpkin slingshot, panning for gold, haunted barn, children’s activities and playground.
• Weekends in September and October. Long Acre Farms, Macedon
www.longacrefarms.com
Long Acre is home of New York’s original Amazing Maize Maze, one of the longest running corn mazes in the nation. The farm offers extended hours on select Friday and Saturday evenings for Moonlight Maze visits. Visitors can peruse the farm market, take wagon rides, get lost in the large maze and mini maze, and play on the “Back 40” children’s area. There’s also wine tasting for adult guests at the on-site winery.
• Oct. 12 — The 41st Annual Autumn Festival — Wellesley Island
www.macnaturecenter.com
It features numerous family attractions, like a craft show and sale, local farm goods, live music, craft activities, birds of prey, dog sledding, and cider pressing demonstrations, petting zoo, children’s games, face painting, pumpkin painting, wagon rides, and vendor booths.
• Oct. 12, Pumpkin Palooza, Lyons
www.facebook.com/LyonsPumpkinPalooza
It focuses on all things pumpkin. Though not at a farm, Pumpkin Palooza’s small town site feels right. The event includes a costume parade, games, trunk-or-treat, casket race, tug-o-war, screaming contest, pumpkin painting, pumpkin roll, zombie walk and “Thriller” dance-off.
• Weekends in September and October. Pick’N Patch, Stanley
www.picknpatch.com
It offers, during weekends in September and October, barnyard bouncer, fun house, barnyard animals, wooden maze, corn tunnel, pumpkin house, 8-acre corn maze and more.
• Weekends in September and October. Beak & Skiff, Lafayette
www.beakandskiff.com
It opens portions of the orchards for wagon rides and apple picking weekends in September and October. Plus, there’s a distillery, tastings, children’s activities and a playground. It’s little wonder USA Today ranked it as the top apple orchard in the country.
• Weekends in September and October. The Apple Shed, Newark
www.theappleshed.com
It offers you-pick apples, hayrides, haunted barn, farm animals, playground and corn kernel slide weekends in September and October.