The crisp autumn season is finally here! It’s time to start sipping hot spiced cider, take afternoon excursions to explore corn mazes and take hayrides, and most importantly, pick your way through patches of pumpkins. Lucky for locals, our area-wide landscape booms with festive farms and orchards, always celebrating the best aspects of autumn.
Here some choice spots for you to celebrate the harvest season and enjoy pumpkin picking around the Philly ‘burbs:
Linvilla Orchards
This 300-acre farm in Delaware County celebrates autumn with its annual Pumpkinland Festival. The orchards is swarming with families on weekends! Giant scarecrows and other larger-than-life figures are set up throughout the pumpkin picking area. Linvilla also offers hayrides and a cornfield maze. It carries a huge assortment of pumpkins, straw bales and fall decorations. Check its packed schedule to see what upcoming events are planned from now until mid-November. 137 W. Knowlton Rd., Media; (610) 876-7116.
Highland Orchards
https://www.instagram.com/p/B2W_d60DCJ5/
Highland Orchards has tons of pumpkins for your choosing, starting each year in late September. Fall festivals are on offer every weekend, with music, food trucks, crafters, kids activities, hayrides and face painters. Out in the orchards, kids can pick apples right from the tree. Stop in the bakery to pick up some delicious pies, cider donuts and elephant ears, and don’t pass up on the pumpkin or chocolate whoopie pies. 1000 Thorndale-Marshallton Rd., West Chester; (610) 269-3494.
Barnard’s Orchards
https://www.instagram.com/p/B3YB_C2hxn7/
If you are looking for an authentic old-style orchards experience, Barnard’s Orchard is your place. No cartoonish characters, amusements or hayrides, just a lovely old-fashioned setting. Owner Lewis Barnard says, “Families can walk right out to the orchards, it’s a quiet walk in the country.” The pumpkin patch, where you can pick pumpkins right off the vine, opens in early October. Looking to bring home some apples, as well? Barnard’s offers Stayman, Fuji, Golden Delicious, Macintosh and other varieties as they are ready. It also sells two types of apple cider: pasteurized or ultraviolet light treated. Other produce such as broccoli, cauliflower and spinach is available. Lewis Barnard also recommends the Jersey cranberries he has in stock each autumn. 1079 Wawaset Rd. (Route 842), Kennett Square; (610) 347-2151.
Milky Way Farm
Pumpkin harvest season at Milky Way Farm, including a pick-your-own pumpkin patch and corn maze, runs this year from late September through late October each year. On these five weekends, the farm is open from 10 a.m.–5 p.m., and free hayrides run all day to take visitors to the pumpkin patch (you can walk if along path, if you prefer). Customers can either pick pumpkins off the vine in the patch or select them in the store. Other fall harvest products, like gourds, Indian corn, crook-neck pumpkin, squash, corn stalk bundles and miniature pumpkins are available, and if the weather cooperates, stop by the creamery for a scoop of incredible ice cream. Groups are welcome, but please email the farm in advance. 521 E. Uwchlan Ave. (Route 113), Chester Springs; (610) 827-1484.
Sugartown Strawberries
https://www.instagram.com/p/B3E3upejrNf/
Although known for its strawberries, this Malvern market opens its pumpkin patch every year in late September. Families can pick their own pumpkins, as well as other fall decorations such as hay bales and corn stalks. The farm is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., 7 days a week, and offers continuous hay rides out to the field and back on weekends through October 31. The farm also offers bonfires, twilight and evening hayrides, school tours and birthday parties, as well. 650 Sugartown Rd., Malvern; (610) 647-0711.
Where’s your favorite spot to pick PA pumpkins? Let us know on the PA Eats Facebook page!
- Feature photo: Bigstock
- Linvilla pumpkins photo: Linvilla Orchards
- Milkyway Farm photo: Ed Williams
