Autumn is here and you can taste it. Chances are, you’re stressing about midterms, getting antsy for your mom to do your laundry over Thanksgiving Break and strategizing about just how slutty you want your Halloween costume to be. But the best things about fall are the simple ones that you’ve clearly forgotten. Lucky for you, classic fall is right where you left it — and it’s closer than you think.
Linvilla Orchards in nearby Media, Pa. is a one-stop shop for the fall farmProxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0
xperience. Though it’s open year-round for seasonal vegetable and fruit picking, it is coming alive in earnest this very minute. The week before Halloween is “All You Can Carry” pumpkin picking for $19.99. Train rides and hayrides around the compound go down all day every day, but from Oct. 17-30 and Nov. 1 and 2, $7 can get you a nighttime hayride followed by a bonfire, complete with marshmallow roasting and fresh apple cider tasting.
On Oct. 18 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the renowned Reading Terminal Market boasts an annual Harvest Festival. The event celebrates locally harvested produce, cheeses and award-winning wines. Filbert Street, right outside the market, will be transformed to showcase a huge pumpkin patch, hay rides and a sidewalk barbeque. Take a bite out of a delicious donut or candy apple while rocking out to Special Delivery, a so-hokey-it’s-great bluegrass band. For the kids at heart, there will be jack-o-lantern contests, arts and crafts tables and face painting. Which is just like when you wake up with a dick drawn on your face… only prettier.
Longwood Gardens near Kennett Square offers several ongoing fall treats. Their Autumn’s Colors Festival is being held through Nov. 23 and features plenty of giant pumpkins and gourds, as well as tasty autumn snacks and seasonal music. The Chrysanthemum Festival is running until Nov. 18, so all you flower children can bask in the beauty of thousands of red, orange and yellow chrysanthemums in full bloom. Looking to sharpen those doodling skills? At noon on Oct. 19, there is a special drawing workshop designed to teach students how to use colored pencils to capture fall scenery.
Boasting 70 shops, six restaurants and a Colonial Tavern and Mystery Dinner Theater, Peddler’s Village in Bucks County is well worth the hour drive. Make the journey in time for the Apple Festival on Nov. 1 and 2. This celebration of everyone’s favorite forbidden fruit includes apple butter, apple cider, apple dumplings, apple fritters, candied apples and a huge variety of farm fresh apples available by the big, juicy bushel. Come hungry and bring your game face; there’ll be an apple pie eating contest. What apple (or autumn, for that matter) festival would be complete without one?
