Fall on Seacoast farms: Your guide to corn mazes, apple picking, festivals and haunted fun
With cool nights, crisp sunny days and flame-colored trees, September is not only the harbinger of autumn, but the start of activities at local farms offering a collage of things to do for almost every taste.
The Seacoast has an impressive array of farms, many providing fine produce, fall’s apple and pumpkin bounty, offering great food opportunities, corn mazes, hayrides, live music and other activities. There’s even fright nights!
Here’s a quick look at some of the region’s farming options. For the best experience, since hours of operations and activities can change with the weather and limited availability, check websites or call prior to heading out.
Applecrest – Hampton Falls
Address: 133 Exeter Road
Website: www.applecrest.com
Phone: (603) 926-3721
Hours: Farm Market open daily 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Corn Maze hours: Daily, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. until the coming of a killing frost. Harvest Festival every weekend, September through October.
This year marks the 48th year Applecrest invites the public to celebrate the harvest by visiting and enjoying its corn maze, barnyard animals, pick-your-own apples and pumpkins, plus free live music, games, and tractor rides every weekend through the end of October.
“Our corn maze offers twists and turns and dead ends cut into 5 acres,” said Applecrest’s Todd Wagner. “I’ve known some who can sprint through it in 15 minutes, but most take from 30 to 40 minutes, unless they get lost and call for help getting out.”
Wagner said apple cider donuts are made fresh every day. The orchard uses its special recipe for apple pies, also offering old fashion ice cream and fresh pressed apple cider. Weekend lists of activities, performers and menus are available at the farm’s website.
'Heavy heart': Scamman Farm ending corn maze, marketplace, a beloved fall tradition
Wagner said, the drought and hot temperatures didn’t make things easy for New England farmers this summer, but hard work and diligence has paid off.
“The drought has been a huge challenge for us, it was a major 100-year event,” Wagner said. “But at the end of the day, the apple and pumpkin crops are phenomenal.”
Applecrest offers 100 acres of fruit orchards with 20,000 apple trees that include 45 different varieties.
Farm at Eastman’s Corner – Kensington
Address: 267 South Road
GPS Location: 244 Amesbury Road, Kensington NH 03833
Website: www.eastmanscorner.com
Phone: (603) 347-1909
Hours: Sunday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Fall brings free live music performances on the Farm’s porch, beginning this weekend through the end of October, with groups such as Red Tail Hawk, The Brethren and Heavy Necker. Entertainment runs from 4 to 7 p.m.
There are loads of activities for the whole family to enjoy every day at The Farm at Eastman’s Corner, plus a farm stand offering produce, baked goods and sandwiches.
Farmer by day, server by night: Gov. Dale Farm hand embraces farm-to-table lifestyle
Built by the students at the Seacoast School of Technology, the farm’s animal barn offers Nigerian dwarf goats and Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs. The mural on the barn was painted in 2016 by students at Kensington Elementary School.
Don’t forget to peek inside the Cluckingham Palace, filled with New Hampshire Reds, who also provide the eggs sold at the farm stand.
The Stay and Play Gazebo offers a place to enjoy a picnic lunch and a view of the farm’s artwork, including its impressive scrap-metal plow horse on the front lawn. The farm’s playground and playhouse are available for families to use whenever visiting.
Apple Annie – Brentwood
Address: 66 Rowell Road, East
Website: www.appleannienh.org
Phone: 603-778-3127
Hours: Farm Store is open weekends only beginning Sept. 24 through Oct. 16 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., selling apples, cider and donuts. Online store open daily till 8 p.m. to pre-order for store pick-up.
Apple Annie includes 90 acres of forests, wetlands, gardens and orchards along the Exeter River that have 270 apple trees. PYO isn’t available this year at Apple Annie, but orders can be placed online for apple cider donuts, cider and apples, as well as purchased at the Farm Store each weekend.
Apple Annie is a small apple orchard off the beaten track, a nice place for an outing. Customers are welcome to purchase apples, then spend some time walking around the orchard, enjoying a picnic or just relaxing.
Oyster Week returns to the Seacoast: Here's what's planned for festivities
Apple Annie offers low-spray apples, unpasteurized apple cider, fall vegetables, baked goods, and jams and jellies. Nearly everything sold at the store is made there from its own produce.
Vernon Family Farm – Newfields
Address: 301 Piscassic Road
Website: www.vernonfamilyfarm.com
Phone: 603-340-4321
Hours: Open daily, year-round, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Located on 33 acres in Newfields along the Piscassic River, the Vernon Family Farm store offers non GMO, organic, local meats, chicken, seafood, prepared foods and produce from more than 30 local farmers and producers. The farm is open for dining outdoors Thursdays, Fridays, and the second Saturday of each month until Oct. 28.
There are also fun events at the farm through Oct. 28, such as live music every Friday and second Saturday of each month running from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.; Outdoor Yoga at 6 p.m. and Vernon Kitchen food, drinks, and lawn games outdoors from 4 to 8 p.m. on Thursday nights. All on-farm event activities close at 8 p.m. Pre-registration is needed and tickets required with live music.
An eye for crime: Exeter author Lara Bricker releases new Piper Greene murder mystery book
Emery Farm – Durham
Address: 147 Piscataqua Road
Website: www.emeryfarm.com
Phone: (603) 742-8495
Hours: Market, Café and Garden Center are currently open daily 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. selling produce, apple cider donuts, pumpkins, and hot apple cider.
Having been in the same family since 1660, Emery Farm is the oldest family farm in the country and with a deep connection to the land, it’s committed to keeping Emery Farm a working farm for generations to come.
Emery Farm offers its customers a place to have fun, relax and reconnect to the land, whether strolling through its home-grown corn maze or taking a wagon ride, enjoying the family play area or the animals in the Petting Farm. The Emery Farm corn maze offers more than twists and turns, but also educational stations hidden throughout.
Combine a venture through the corn maze with a classic tractor-drawn wagon ride around the scenic Emery Farm property, available Saturdays and Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m. through the month of October. Travel through the woods, passing corn fields, honeybee hives, and even the pumpkin patch.
Reservations aren’t required, just drop by the farm during its hours of operation to buy tickets.
At the Market, pick up farm fresh produce and fruit, along with cut flowers, herbs, pumpkins and wreaths at the garden center.
Coppal House Farm – Lee
Address: 118 North River Road
Website: www.nhcornmaze.com
Hours: Farm Stand, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday through Monday, closed Tuesday and Wednesday. Corn Maze, noon to 5 p.m., Monday, Thursday and Friday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday; closed Tuesday and Wednesday; Columbus Day Monday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
With a website of nhcornmaze.com visitors understand Coppal House Farm is serious about its labyrinth. A livestock and grain farm, each year a Belgian Shire draft horse is harnessed to carve a theme design within its 8-foot-tall corn stalk corn maze. Signs and trivia questions along the way act as guides. There are even Flashlight Night Mazes, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. on Saturdays Sept. 12, Oct. 8 and Oct. 22.
On select weekends, visitors can enjoy an old-fashioned wagon ride with friends and family, taking a half-hour journey through woods and trails. At the end of your ride, a bonfire may await. Wagon rides run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, Sept. 17 and 18; Oct. 1 and 2; 8 and 9, and 15 and 16.
Tickets may be purchased at the farm store upon arrival, or visit the website for other options.
Journeys complete, take a gander at the goodies at the farm stand, grab a pumpkin or fall decorations or some maple syrup.
DeMeritt Hill Farm – Lee
Address: 20 Orchard Way
Website: www.demeritthillfarm.com
Phone: (603) 868-2111
Hours: Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
There are many things to do at DeMeritt Hill Farm from its store full of produce, treats, crafts, bakery goods and pumpkins, PYO apples excursions and lots of weekend festivities.
An explosive find: A Hampton family found a Civil War artifact in an Exeter river
But the star of the show in October is DeMeritt Hill Farm’s Haunted Overload, a frightening feast of ghosts and goblins, monsters and creepies and things that go bump in the night. Day Haunt at Haunted Overload runs Fridays through Sundays, starting Oct. 7 through Oct. 30, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Fright Night Haunted Overload runs Thursdays through Sundays, Oct. 6 through Oct. 31, ranging in time from 6:30 to 9 p.m., depending on the night attending.
For tickets and more information, visit www.hauntedoverload.com.
Not game for being scared out of your socks, try the other weekend fun offered at DeMeritt Hill Farm, like Family Weekend, Sept. 17 and 18; Harvest Weekend, Sept. 24 and 35, or Pumpkin Fest, Oct. 1 and 2.
Butternut Farm Cider House – Farmington
Address: 195 Meaderboro Road
Website: www.butternutfarm.net
Phone: (603) 335-4705, PYO info line
Fall Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, closed Mondays
At this family-run, patron-friendly, pick-your-own fruit farm, apples and pumpkins are the stars during September and October.
But this is more than a place selling fruit, apple cider donuts, home-baked apple pies and other goodies. Butternut Farm is a cider house, making fresh pressed apple cider, as well as designing and brewing a number of varieties of small-batch hard ciders. They offer tastings and sell their hard ciders directly to visitors.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Fall on Seacoast farms: Your guide to corn mazes, apple picking, festivals and more
