02 Oct Fall Fun on the North Fork: Getting Lost in a Corn Maze and More!
The leaves are beginning to fall as we welcome in the season, and that means it’s time for some festive family fun! If you’re into corn mazes, apple and pumpkin picking, country fairs, live music, pony rides, and enough seasonal food and drinks to stuff you until winter, then we’ve got a calendar of events for you! Just as we promised, this week we’re bringing you a schedule of fabulous fall events to enjoy on Long Island’s North Fork!
October 13th – The 38th Annual Riverhead Country Fair is taking place on Main Street at Peconic River Front, starting at 10am and running until 5pm. There’ll be all sorts of live entertainment all day, a variety of competitions, vegetable decorating contests, farm animals and pony rides, an assortment of local merchants and business expositions/displays, and most importantly, the opportunity to taste of a wide selection of Long Island farm produce. For more information on the Riverhead Country Fair, visit their official website here.
Now through October 31st – In our research of the best fall activities, we stumbled across the Harbes Family Farms and absolutely fell in love! They have three locations, in Jamesport, Riverhead, and Mattituck, all with unique features and packed with family fun! Their Western Farm is located in Jamesport, their Farm and Orchard is in Riverhead, and their Barnyard Adventure is in Mattituck.
Harbes Family Farm and Orchard – The Farm and Orchard in Riverhead is open on weekends from 9am to 6pm. Once you arrive, hop aboard the Apple Express, which will take you right into the middle of fields of apples just waiting for you to pick them! The Harbes Family offers 8 varieties of apples, but only 6 are still in season: Daybreak Fuji, Jonagold de Coster, Golden Delicious, Shizuka, Aztec Rose Fuji, and Cameo. There’s a Robin Hood-themed corn maze, inviting guests to transform into merry men and women in Robin’s band of outlaws as they venture into Sherwood Forest. There are also acres and acres of pumpkins to pick, and the Harbes Family supplies a selection of complimentary wagons for your use as you search the patch for your perfect pumpkin. The Honey Crisp Café is your spot for all things delicious at the Farm and Orchard, including candy apples, roasted corn, and mouthwatering homemade apple cider donuts–one of our own recently ate six of these donuts in one day, and has not shut up about them since! Conveniently for all of the moms and dads out there, located quite close to the pen of farm animals for the kids to pet and feed, is a wine tasting gazebo, perfect for enjoying a glass of locally-sourced wine! On Fridays and Saturdays through Halloween, the Farm and Orchard also has a Spooky Moonlight Maze, which is open from 7pm to 10pm, weather permitting. Don’t forget to bring a flashlight with you when you go!
Harbes Family Western Farm – The Western Farm in Jamesport features a rustic farm stand supplied with “super sweet” corn, heirloom tomatoes, apples, peaches, and a variety of other local fruits and vegetables. In addition, they have an assortment of farm-made pies and those incredible apple cider donuts we mentioned earlier! The farm stand is open seven days a week from 10am-6pm. In addition to the farm stand, Harbes Family Western Farm has an area called Frontier Land, which is open on weekends from 10am-6pm. There are a ton of great western-themed activities in Frontier Land, including an authentic Native American teepee, cowboy hat and bandana adorned pony rides, a gemstone mining station and musical hayrides. They also offer games and races, including potato sack races, relay races, scarecrow races, pumpkin tosses, corn hole bean bag tosses and more! Last, but certainly not least, a 6-acre interactive western corn maze! This corn maze allows guests to let their inner cowboys and cowgirls loose, with opportunities to show off their roping, tracking and sharpshooting skills!
Harbes Family Barnyard Adventure – The Barnyard Adventure in Mattituck is open every day from 9am to 6pm, and is the prime location for the Harbes Family to show off their farm animal friends! Delta and Bounty are their Shetland paint ponies, Oreo and Billy Goat Gruff are their Nigerian goats, Dusty is a very popular giant Canadian Royal Potbelly pig, and they’re all accompanied by a whole gang of sheep, cows, piglets, and baby chicks. There’s also a live Bee Observatory, which teaches visitors about how honey is made, and there’s an educational hayride that goes out on weekends! Also on the weekends, Barnyard Adventure features pig races, where excited onlookers get to cheer on their favorite piglets! Behind a secret door you may find their Secret Garden Hedge Maze, which we hear is the prettiest place to get lost—within it you’re surrounded by the sounds of birds chirping as you saunter through the autumn sunshine. Not to fall off the farm animal focus, there are two areas for even more animal fun: Bunnyville and Goat Mountain! (We imagine you can figure out who lives there.) The corn maze at this location is called the Little Lost Sheep Maze, so we’re intrigued to see what that one’s like!
Hope we haven’t tired you out yet, because we haven’t even gotten to November!
November 9th-11th – Taste North Fork is an exciting event happening on Veteran’s Day Weekend, stretching out all across the North Fork! From Riverhead to Greenport, there will be an itinerary full of events and activities, including tastings, food-pairing demonstrations, live music, and more! Many North Fork restaurants, wineries, B&Bs, hotels, and other businesses will be participating, and a free shuttle service will be available for visitors, making stops at the Long Island Railroad, Hampton Jitney, and Cross Sound Ferry! Check here for a full program of activities and shuttle service details, which will be posted soon.
November 15th – Fish and Sips is an event being held at the Long Island Aquarium in Riverhead (the same location as the Halloween Spooktacular we covered last week!). From 7-10:30pm, head out to the aquarium for a night of fantastic food and drinks from over 20 local wineries. There will also be live music as you make your way around the event, visiting all of the different tasting stations. If you go with a party of five or more, your designated driver gets in free! Talk about a responsibility incentive! For more information on the Fish and Sips event, the promotional material is here.
So that wraps our list of just some of the many fall festivities being held on the North Fork this seasons! Be sure to check some (or all!) of them out—your family is bound to have an absolutely wonderful time!