The breeze is picking up, leaves are changing and the faint smell of pumpkin spice is floating out of every bakery and coffee shop, which means it’s time to start planning all those exciting spooky season activities around Kent.
There’s nothing more fall friendly than a pumpkin patch, and there are plenty to choose from in Kent and the surrounding areas. Multiple local farms even go as far as to put on entire autumn-themed festivals alongside the patch.
The Dussel Farm and Feed Store is one of many options for your fall activities. Located at 1109 Old Forge Road, the farm has a huge, family friendly Pumpkin Festival in late September and October, according to their website. Whether your carving or cooking your pumpkin, the yard full of them is sure to have the perfect one.
Pumpkins aren’t the only autumn motif attendees can find at the Dussel Farm’s Pumpkin Festival. Also grown on the farm, folks can find hay bales, cornstalks, squash and mums for all of those fall decoration needs.
Activities around the festival can turn a simple pumpkin picking trip into an entire day of fun for the whole family. Grab a hot or cold apple cider and head into the corn maze to put those navigational skills to the test. A smaller, tent maze is also available for the smaller children.
Weekends at the farm bring in face painting for the littles as well, and there are plenty of treats for purchase. Kettle corn, caramel apples and a variety of beverages can satisfy the fall cravings.
Rufener Hilltop Farms, settled on state Route 43 in Mogadore, is another large, local farm throwing an autumn-themed festival. Fall On The Farm, Rufener’s festival, takes place from September 26 through October 25. On the farm this year, all attendees can visit the pumpkin patch, the 10-acre corn maze or the junior maze.
Visitors can choose between a weekday or weekend to visit the farm. Both options include yard games, farm animals and photo opportunities, according to their website.
Weekdays, the website says, offer a more relaxed experience with open farm area to explore, open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Rates for the weekdays are $5 while seniors over 65 pay $3 and children under 3 are free of charge. For an extra $5, visitors can also pick their own pumpkins.
Weekends, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., offer a few more opportunities such as barrel train rides, hayrides, a pumpkin cannon and food. Also, for the young ones, there are playgrounds, a corn pool, pumpkin bowling and plenty of other games and activities.
Each weekend general admission ticket can get you one pumpkin from the patch. General admission on the weekends is $14, $12 for seniors over 65 and free for children under 3. Patrons can also launch a pumpkin in the cannon for $5 or launch 3 pumpkins for $12.
Haunted houses and spooky encounters are a staple of fall that cannot be left behind, and the Kent ghost tours are a great way to get into the halloween spirit. The Kent After Dusk Ghost Tours explore all of Kent’s haunted locations where past residents may still linger.
Available to book online, the one hour walking tours are held nightly, according to their website. Children 6 and under can attend the tour for free, youth aged 7 to 17 are $17 a ticket and the adult price is $26.
The tour takes groups through all of the town’s historical hauntings. Tours start at the Masonic Temple on W. Main Street where a ghostly apparition can allegedly be seen through the third floor windows. Following the temple, the tour then goes through places like the Kent Historical Society and the Kent Stage Theater, where you may spot some past performers.
Parts of the University are even speculated to be haunted, so keep an eye out, you could have a ghostly lab partner this Halloween!