With the leaves turned their bright colors and fall season in full swing, local farms are bringing families together for fresh air, fresh foods and farm fun. We’ve rounded up some great spots to visit around Baltimore with plenty of activities and attractions for all ages.
Weber’s Cider Mill Farm in Parkville features duck races, a mini maze, hillside slides, a tire mountain, straw maze, and barrel train ride. On weekends, for an additional price, guests can enjoy caricature artists, glitter tattoos, face painting, balloon creations, and live music on specific days. Also, enjoy great foods like fresh kettle corn, caramel apples, apple cider donuts, and slush.
Chapel Hills Nursery in Perry Hall offers various sizes and shapes of pumpkins and other gourds to pick from. Visitors can also meet the resident goats and ponies, enjoy a hayride, and purchase from an assortment of foods, including apple dumplings, apple cider, homemade jams and apple butters, apple cider donuts, and more.
Baughers in Westminster offers hayrides and scarecrow-making only on weekends. But guests can get up close and personal to feed animals at their petting zoo seven days a week. The zoo has farm livestock such as goats, donkeys, rabbits, pigs, guinea pigs, and more. Families can pick their own pumpkins, apples, and sunflowers or enjoy the orchard market that features local raw honey, homegrown produce, jams, jellies, apple cider donuts, and apple butter.
Gaver Farm is open seven days a week and is located in Mt. Airy. Daily attractions include a corn maze, jumping pillows, mini mazes, playgrounds with giant slides, duck races, ball games, photo centers, and more. On weekends, additional attractions include pedal karts, a cow train, and gem mining.
Clark’s Elioak Farm in Ellicott City offers a petting farm, pony rides, and an enchanted forest. The forest is a fairytale come to life with castles, a train ride, a tree maze with enchanted character sightings, and so much more,
If you’re just looking for pumpkins, visit Valley View Farms in Cockeysville, where you will find thousands of pumpkins of all shapes and sizes, including a giant 2,005 pumpkin. Visitors have the opportunity to guess how many seeds are in the giant pumpkin for a chance to win prizes to $300. Contest entries can be submitted from now until the seed counting begins, Oct. 29 at noon.
The Maryland Corn Maze in Gambrills is not just about the 8-acre corn maze. They also offer zip lining, a bouncepad, a hands-on petting zoo, hayrides, giant Lincoln logs, pedal tractors, rodeo roping, cow milking, and so much more.
This Saturday navigate your way through the twists and turns of Strohmer’s Farm evening event, the Flashlight Corn Maze. On weekends, pick a pumpkin, play games, go on a hayride, or visit the farm animals. If you’re wondering what to do with your jack-o-lantern after Halloween, the Baltimore County farm also hosts Pumpkin Smashing Days, where families can take a trip out to the fields and smash pumpkins they wish to discard.
Knightongale Farm on Solomons Island is only open on weekends. They offer access to a huge pumpkin patch, barnyard basketball, John Deere pedal tractors, 40-foot barrel slides, a moon bounce, milking the cow, games including tug of war and pin the tail on the pony, and so much more,
Rock Hill Orchard in Mt. Airy is only open for activities on the weekends. All pumpkins are $10, so pick the largest one in the field for the same price as the smallest one. There’s also a corn maze and a variety of apples for picking, including Aztec Fuji, Sun Fuji, Evercrisp, Pink Lady, Stayman and more. Rock Hill even has a pumpkin cannon, which uses compressed air to launch pumpkins down the field!
Visit Montpelier Farm in Upper Marlboro for all your favorite fall farm festivities and a few extras including hill slides, pumpkin bowling, public bonfire, an interactive scavenger hunt, paint a pumpkin, duck races, and a load more.
Each farm has different regulations on reservations, admission prices, and weather cancellations. Please visit each site for additional information.
