Many of us didn’t wait until the start of fall on Sept. 21 to bust out the sweaters and Pumpkin Spice Lattes. Now that it’s officially here, there’s tons of seasonal fun kicking off with apple harvests, pumpkin patches and fall festivals right in the city and just a short trip beyond.
Queens County Fair
Take a drive to Queens County Farm Museum for its 35th annual Queens County Fair, which includes everything you want in an old-fashioned fall carnival on the farm: carnival rides and games, blue ribbon competitions, pie eating and corn husking contests, live music, a beer garden, and children’s entertainment by magicians, jugglers and acrobats. Though the festival is only one weekend long, you can go on a hayride in a wagon, take a selfie with a llama in the petting zoo, pick a pumpkin, enjoy live music and make time to get lost in the farm’s Amazing Maize Maze, the largest in the region, weekends through Oct. 29. Sept. 23-24, 11 a.m.-6 p.m., adults $10, kids $5, 73-50 Little Neck Parkway, Floral Park, Long Island
Scarecrows & Pumpkins
Every weekend beginning Sept. 30 through Halloween, you can get up close with the “spooky” creatures of the season like bats and reptiles at the New York Botanical Garden. Plus, find the biggest pumpkins during the annual Giant Pumpkin Weekend (Oct. 21-22), when the largest pumpkins from around the country — some weighing in at more than a ton — arrive at the garden, with Q&A sessions with the growers. Through Oct. 30, $20-$25, nybg.org
Harvest Moon’s Fall Festival
It’s apple-picking time — and pumpkin season is not far behind — so get both done at Harvest Moon Farm & Orchard in Westchester County. Swing by on weekends in September and October when this charming eco-conscious farm holds its fall festival with hayrides, kids activities, live music (Saturdays), apple cannons, cider tastings, fresh baked pizzas (Saturdays) and a barbecue. $5-$10, 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m., 130 Hardscrabble Road, North Salem, New York
Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze
For the most spectacular pumpkin display, head out to Van Cortlandt Manor in Croton-on-Hudson, where some 7,000 gourds have been carved to commemorate the biggest pop culture moments of the year and illuminated throughout the 18th century estate. The walk-through experience along wooded pathways, orchards and gardens takes you past creepy fields of traditional Jack O’Lanterns and larger-than-life pumpkin sculptures like the Pumpkin Zee Bridge, Statue of Liberty and the all-new fully functional Pumpkin Carousel. This event sells out quickly, so hustle. Sept. 29-Oct. 1, 5-9, 12-31, Nov. 2-5, 9-12, 17-18, 24-25, 525 S. Riverside Ave., $22-$27, hudsonvalley.org
Night of 1,000 Jack-o’-Lanterns
This October, the pumpkin patch is coming to you. For the first time, the haunted gourd extravaganza that is The Rise taking place at Old Westbury Gardens will have a smaller outpost on Governors Island for five days. Local artists are channeling their spooky creativity to create the Night of 1,000 Jack-o’-Lanterns, hand-carving and painting pumpkins to spook and delight visitors amid the historic buildings of the island. Oct. 26-29, ferry at 10 South St. to Governors Island, $20-$26, therise.org
Ghouls & Gourds 2014 from Brooklyn Botanic Garden on Vimeo.
Ghouls & Gourds 2017
At this music and harvest festival, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden dons its fall finery to host Ghouls & Gourds 2017. Groove to two stages of live music and entertainment like the Louisiana zydeco sounds of Jeffrey Broussard and Creole Cowboys and a woodland waltz led by the Mettawee River Theatre Company. Expect tons of nature- and Halloween-themed fun like rutabaga skeeball, helping to build a giant spiderweb, a menagerie of larger-than-life mythical creatures, and what’s promised to be “Brooklyn’s wackiest costume parade.” Oct. 28, noon-5:30 p.m., $20-free for kids under 12, 990 Washington Ave., Prospect Park, bbg.org
