Can you feel it? The air is starting to cool down, days are getting shorter, and now when you catch that whiff of smoke on the breeze, it smells like fireplaces warming homes instead of the wildfires evacuating them (if you’re from the area, you know what I mean). That’s right, we’re entering autumn, and we all know the most exciting part of the season is the fall harvest festival!
Every year, our local growers and makers put on these events for us to enjoy, ranging from city markets to scarecrow celebrations, and coming soon will be the spookier events like haunted mazes and movie showings. To celebrate, we’re joining in on the fall festivities by bringing you the ultimate local guide to the fall harvest festival.
We’ll start off with the history of the festival before we get into which local events to visit, and we even included some helpful tips for the hosts and participants of these autumnal celebrations. So, grab your flannel, pour yourself some hot cider, and let’s get into some seasonal spirit!
What Is a Fall Harvest Festival?
We probably don’t need to tell you what a fall harvest festival is. If you live in Southern Oregon, there are so many to choose from, and you probably already have your favorites that you and your family return to year after year. But, in case you want to know a little bit more about where they came from and what to expect when you go, we’ve got you covered.
History and Origins
Since we humans first transitioned from hunter-gatherer cultures to agrarian societies (meaning we started growing our own food), we would celebrate the successful harvest season. Obviously, who doesn’t love a reason to party with your family and friends? Especially when what you’re celebrating is having enough food to survive the cold or non-productive season.
Harvest festivals have appeared in different forms all around the world for hundreds or thousands of years. While some aspects of these celebrations are pretty ubiquitous across all cultures, like seasonal food and outdoor live music, there’s also a huge variety of unique traditions.
Some global harvest festival traditions include:
- – Zhongqiu Jie: Also called the Middle Autumn Festival or the Moon Festival, this celebration originated in China over 3,000 years ago during the Shang Dynasty, and is celebrated by lighting lanterns, moon gazing, and eating moon cakes.
- – Sukkoth: The final harvest celebration for Jewish people where a temporary shelter, called a sukkah, is built where families live and share meals during the seven or eight-day celebration, and is associated with palm, myrtle, willow and citron.
- – Inti Raymi: The harvest celebration originating from the Incan Empire in the Andes of Ecuador and Peru includes colorful costumes, coordinated performances, and a maize-based beer called chicha.
This is just a tiny selection of some international harvest festivals, but there are countless more from just about every corner of the world. However, our harvest festivals here in Southern Oregon are mostly influenced by Indigenous Native American traditions and European traditions.
Tribes each had their own unique harvest ceremonies, largely tied to their regional crops and harvest windows. Traditional native foods harvested included corn, squash, beans, acorns, cranberries, pumpkins, and pecans… Starting to sound familiar?
On the other side, you can see the other influences primarily from three European celebrations:
- – Oktoberfest: aside from hosting our own interpretations of an Oktoberfest, this Bavarian holiday’s influence can be seen in other events with glazed and roasted nuts, “fun fairs” and games, and, of course, beer!
- – Erntedankfest: Another German holiday, Erntdankfest has its roots in early pagan harvest festivals, and brought us parades, cornucopias, and decorating homes with fruits and vegetables. They also have woven wheat crowns, which…should we adopt that tradition, too?
- – Samhain: We all know this one by now, the pagan predecessor to Halloween! Originally a celtic holiday, this brought ghosts, monsters, carving vegetables, costumes, and sweet treats.
Of course, our harvest festivals are still evolving as we continue to develop as a culture, so let’s see where we’re at now.
Modern-Day Celebrations
Just like the older traditions, every farm and host is going to put their own spin on the traditions, so you can expect to find novel activities at your local fall harvest festival. Some of the classics you’ll probably get to experience are:
- – U-Pick Pumpkin Patches & Apple Orchards: Instead of just buying produce, the act of going into the field to select your own pumpkin or apple is the main event. Farms often provide wagons or wheelbarrows, turning the harvest itself into a photogenic family activity.
- – Corn Mazes: Farmers cut elaborate, often themed, labyrinths into mature cornfields. What started as simple paths has evolved into massive, GPS-designed puzzles spanning acres, often incorporating checkpoints, games, or nighttime “haunted” hours.
- – Agritainment Rides: Traditional farm equipment is repurposed for entertainment. Hayrides (sitting on straw bales in a wagon pulled by a tractor) are ubiquitous, alongside newer inventions like “cow trains” (individual barrel cars pulled by a tractor) and corn cannons (using compressed air to shoot a variety of fruits and vegetables at targets).
- – Fall Foods & Cider Mills: The culinary side of the festival focuses heavily on seasonal, localized treats. Fresh apple cider, warm apple cider donuts, kettle corn, roasted sweet corn, and caramel apples are staples.
- – Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Offs: Many regional festivals feature competitions where growers bring genetically specialized, heavily cultivated pumpkins that can weigh over 2,000 pounds, culminating in a dramatic weigh-in event.
Are you ready to experience the festivities? Check out some of our favorite fall harvest festivals in Southern Oregon.
Our Local Fall Harvest Festivals
Small disclaimer, here: this is not an exhaustive list of all the harvest festivals in the Rogue Valley. We’re just talking about the events that the author has attended in past years, but there are plenty of others to go explore in our area. For a more complete list, check out the Southern Oregon Fall Bucket List from What To Do In Southern Oregon.
For Family Fun Day
- Hanley Farms Scarecrow & Harvest Festival: This one is actually going on this weekend, September 19th and 20th, so get out there before it’s over! The Southern Oregon Historical Society’s event is great for families, where you can make your own scarecrow, decorate pumpkins, or join in the scavenger hunt. This year, they’re going to have Mary Jane’s Bento and an ice cream truck providing food alongside their own concession stand.
- Bigham Farms Pumpkin Patch: To quote Linus from the Peanuts, “I don’t see how a pumpkin patch can be more sincere than this one.” Bigham Farms is a family-owned farm who you’ll see all summer at the Rogue Valley Growers Market, but starting next weekend, September 26th through Halloween, they operate their fall harvest festival where you can enjoy the hayride, corn maze, and scarecrow slingshots. And don’t miss their homemade pumpkin butter while it lasts.
- Pheasant Fields Farm Harvest Festival: These guys go big for their annual Fall Harvest Festival, which opens September 26th. They’ll have outdoor live music, the barn marketplace, corn maze, shooting gallery, animal exhibit, cow train, hay ride… the list keeps on going!
For the Grown-Ups
- Made In Southern Oregon: That’s right, Central Point is blocking off Pine Street again for the local vendor market where you can find art, craft, and food all made by talented folks from around the Rogue Valley. Kids are definitely welcome here, too, but I think the grown-ups might enjoy themselves more. Check it out on September 26th, and then maybe go watch Ghostbusters in the cemetery on October 30th.
- Talent Harvest Festival: Another vendor market that’s definitely kid-friendly, but with multiple beer gardens, live music, and cider pressing, it’s definitely going to be a can’t-miss event for the adults. Don’t miss out on meeting the local artisans in Talent on October 3rd.
- Pheasant Fields Fright After Dark: Okay, okay, I know I already mentioned Pheasant Fields, but if you like your Fall Harvest Festival on the spooky side, you have to check them out. They have five immersive attractions, including the Fright Train and haunted corn mazes (yes, plural). And, in case you work up an appetite running for your life, they’ll have food trucks on site. Go get terrified starting October 16th.
Hosting a Fall Harvest Festival
If you’re one of the fine folks hosting a fall harvest festival this year, we haven’t forgotten about you. Whether you’ve been running events for years or this is your first time jumping into the pumpkin patch, we’ve rounded up a few practical tips to help you get through it with a smile on your gourd.
Planning Your Events
Good planning is arguably the most important part of keeping your events stress-free. Since it’s already September, we’re assuming you’ve already checked in with your city or county to get your permits and learn all the regulations, right? Right?
Since we know you’re already on top of all the legal requirements, here are some planning tips you might not have thought of:
- – Don’t Trust the Weather: Autumn in Southern Oregon can quickly go from bright crisp days to sudden downpours, and muddy paths are a good way to have your guests faceplanting. Having canopies over your ticket and vendor booths, and extra straw to lay over muddy walkways can avoid a lot of headaches.
- – Bathrooms Don’t Have to be a Nightmare: However many portable toilets and handwashing stations you’ve already ordered, order a few more. Hundreds of people all drinking your hot cider while on the hayride are going to have to go, like, now. And be sure to place them somewhere level, accessible, and far away from the food.
- – You Can’t Have Too Many Signs: Signs clearly guiding people to the food, activities, and restrooms are a must, but also don’t forget safety signs. It might seem silly, but “Don’t Climb” posted next to your antique tractor could avoid damaged property and injured kids.
Picking Autumnal Activities
Of course, there are the classics that have already been discussed over and over again, like corn mazes and hay rides, but you can get more creative than that. That’s not to say skip the corn maze, they’re classics for a reason. But, in case you need help coming up with some unique fall harvest festival activities, we’ve gathered a few for you:
- – Photo Opportunities: Okay, this one’s a classic that can be creative. If you have some artistic skills, a jigsaw, paint, and some scrap plywood, you can create themed backgrounds, characters, and even face-in-the-hole boards for people to pose with.
- – Shooting Galleries: A modern classic, set up some scarecrows or those plywood characters on a range and give your guests some ammunition. It can be as simple as an apple slingshot, or go a bit bigger with air cannons… or go extreme with pumpkin catapults. Just make sure your range has a safe backdrop.
- – Pumpkin Bowling: If you happen to be growing particularly spherical varieties, you can cut the stem flush with the gourd, set up some basic pins, and see if you can get your pumpkin all the way down your lanes.
Is Your Farm Insurance Going to Cover A Fall Harvest Festival?
Your farm insurance policy has you covered for traditional agricultural risks, like crop loss, equipment damage, and basic premises liability for workers. However, once you open your farm to the general public for a harvest festival, the risk profile transforms dramatically.
Activities like corn mazes, hayrides, petting zoos, and on-site food sales introduce commercial and entertainment liabilities that standard agricultural policies are probably going to exclude. If a guest trips over an exposed root in the pumpkin patch or is injured on a tractor-pulled ride, a basic farm policy will likely deny the claim, leaving the owner personally liable for medical bills and potential legal fees.
To bridge the gap in coverage, you might need specialized special event or festival insurance. Gather your festival plans, list of activities, and the expected number of guests, and bring it to your insurance agent. A qualified specialist can help tailor your policy to cover the unique hazards of inviting high-volume foot traffic onto a working farm.
See You In The Pumpkin Patch
Regardless of whether you’re attending or hosting a fall harvest festival, now you’re ready for the fun and chaos of these seasonal celebrations. So get out there, get your pumpkin, do some leaf-peeping, and maybe we’ll bump into you in the corn maze.
Still have questions? You can reach out to our team at Ashland Insurance online or give us a call!
541.482.0831 Ashland
541.857.0679 Medford