Getting in the Mood for a Harvest Festival

I took a walk through the pumpkin patch yesterday (the leaves are starting to die back so we can actually get through now and see what’s there). The pumpkins have sized up and are turning from green to orange, which is always a relief a few weeks before our Harvest Fair and Pumpkin Patch. (It’s hard to sell green pumpkins before Halloween, and it’s just as hard to sell orange ones after Halloween!) But we have a really good-looking crop of jack-o-lantern pumpkins this year.  You’re invited to come out to pick your pumpkins from a real organic pumpkin patch and partake in the other farm activities on October 6th.

Speaking of the Harvest Fair, we got hold of this old-style cider press from Steve’s aunt and uncle Jean and Jerry Thomas. If you come out on October 6th, be prepared to do a little hand cranking of the press and try some fresh pressed apple cider. Maybe we’ll bring out the old-fashioned ice cream maker too and make strawberry ice cream. Chef Andrew is planning the menu for the gourmet farm barbecue and we’re lining up the arts and crafts, petting zoo, pony rides, hay rides, live music, and so on.

The pumpkin patch did so well this year, we are able to offer pumpkin patch field trips if you have a school class that would like to visit a pumpkin patch. We are scheduling trips on October 11 and 12, and we’ll keep our hay ride set up after the Harvest Fair so the classes can get a hayride tour around the farm when they come out to pick pumpkins. Call (831-254-4918) or e-mail Sarah if you’d like to schedule a class trip for one of those days. We’ll charge $5 per student.

Enough talk about fall; other parts of the farm are still in the thick of summer. Tomato, pepper, eggplant crops are still coming along nicely, the strawberry patch is still cranking out delicious berries, and the latest planting of summer squash is just coming in. Feel free to order some extra tomatoes or strawberries while we’ve got them. With these cold mornings and shorter days, the season won’t last forever.