In one area of Sweetapple Farm just off Ohio 339 in Vincent, visitors frantically make their way through a corn maze, trying to find the exit as quickly as they can.
Meanwhile, others visit the market on the farm, where they browse locally handmade items and purchase hot apple cider, perfect for sipping on a crisp, fall evening.
Others bring a scarecrow to life by stuffing old pants and shirts with straw or give a pumpkin a personality by carving it or painting on it.
Article Photos
Photo submitted by Ginny Cottrill.
Matt, Ryan, Christina, and Lauren Helm are pictured several years ago in the pumpkin patch at Sweetapple Farm in Vincent.
It's a typical fall day at the farm, the only one in the area that is regularly open to the public for such activities throughout the autumn season.
Butcher Family Farm and Greenhouses, located in Washington, W.Va., does not regularly offer activities for the public but will hold a Family Fun Day from 10 a.m. to dark Oct. 8.
The farm's co-owner, Jo Ellen Butcher, said Family Fun Day has been held on the farm a few years and it usually draws around 1,000 people.
Fact Box
Sweetapple Farm:
Where: 149 Sweetapple Road, Vincent.
When: open 6 to 10 p.m. Fridays; 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturdays and noon to 6 p.m. Sundays during the month of October.
Some activities: "Spooky hayrides" Oct. 14, 15, 21, 22, 28 and 29 beginning at 7:15 p.m. for $5 a person; flashlight corn maze every Friday and Saturday in October beginning at dusk for $4 a person.
Call 678-7447 for information.
Butcher Family Farms and Greenhouses:
Where: DuPont Road, two miles below DuPont Washington Works, in Washington, W.Va.
Family fun day will be held from 10 a.m. to dark Oct. 8
Open to the public; free admission
She said apple butter, apple cider and kettle corn will be made during the event, there will be games and pumpkins will be launched from a trebuchet.
"Our farm is open all the time anyway. It's a produce farm and we have a produce stand, we raise mums, pumpkins and all kinds of vegetables," Butcher said.
Though it's been a fully functioning dairy farm for many years, Sweetapple Farm officially opened to the public in the fall of 2000. It is comprised of a little more than 200 acres, with about 15 of those used for public activities. It is named after a cow the Barrett family once had named Sweetapple.
Fall is the busy season at the farm, in terms of visitors.
"They come from Charleston, W.Va., they come from Circleville, Ohio, Cambridge, Zanesville - they come from all over," said Mona Barrett, manager of the farm. "Our whole theme is experience the farm, relax, smile and have fun."
Sweetapple Farm is just a hop, skip and a jump away for the Cottrill family, of Vincent. They've made it a point to visit there every year since it opened.
"Everything from the apple cider you can have in the market to watching your kids stuffing a scarecrow, it's all neat things to expose your kids to," said Ginny Cottrill, 44, a mother of five. "I'm a farm girl - I grew up on a farm - so it's neat to expose my kids to the farm life that way."
One of the highlights at the farm is the corn maze, which has a different theme each year. This year's theme is "Horsepower," with the maze featuring half of a horse's body, as well as a tractor and the sun.
For $4, a person can venture into the maze during the day or try to find their way through it after dusk with the help of a flashlight.
Signs are posted throughout the maze which share facts related to the theme, which is meant to represent the first American Agricultural Revolution and the roles horses and tractors played in it.
"The people who have gone through it so far have been pleased with it," Barrett said.
Another popular activity at the farm is the hayride. The normal hayride is $4 a person but the "spooky hayride," which will be offered the evenings of Oct. 14, 15, 21, 22, 28 and 29, is $5 a person.
Barrett said because the "spooky hayride" is so popular, reservations are required.
"We try to change it a little bit every year and we have the same families and same groups that come back every year - it's silliness and a lot of laughter," she said.
The pig races on the farm also keep visitors laughing. Barrett said this involves four baby pigs racing each other, an event that occurs on the quarter hour Saturdays and Sundays.
"It's a fun thing that takes five minutes but people love seeing those pigs run around there," she said.
There are also cows on the farm, as well as a horse, a donkey, roosters, goats and ducks.
Barrett said all of the activities at Sweetapple Farm exist because of visitor input. She said one thing some visitors have indicated is that they would like to be able to stay overnight at the farm.
As a result, the farmhouse on the property will open for overnight guests in the spring.
"There are some people who come back here to visit family in this area and would like to have a place to stay," Barrett said.
