Harvest Festival 2022: Cool Places to Find Bounty

By Susan McKee

The Harvest Festival 2022 season is on. From the time of hunters and gatherers into the era of animal husbandry and agriculture, a bountiful harvest has been a time of celebration. One’s family and community could survive the winter and live ‘til the next crops are ready. The alternative? Too grim to contemplate.

Harvest season is so central to the human condition that pagans in Europe marked it with not one but three holidays: Lughnasa (at the start of the harvest in August), the midpoint at the autumnal equinox, and Samhain (at the end of the harvest, when the spirits of the dead are sometimes invited to participate).

Now, of course, we’re far removed from the nitty gritty of food production. Yet, with the hint of fall in the air, the primal human impetus to celebrate the harvest remains and Harvest Festival 2022 season is in full swing and color.

Where? In all the corn mazes, pumpkin patches, and apple festivals from coast to coast, with Halloween (and the Day of the Dead) at the end.

Harvest Festival 2022: Corn Mazes

Autumn is long after the peak flavor months for sweet corn (that which we love to eat on the cob). Most corn in the United States is grown for animal feed these days, although some is dried and ground into cornmeal.

Mazes, of course, are ancient labyrinths, but those set into the corn are a distinctly American phenomenon. They used to be amateur productions on farm fields. Now, they’re created by computer programs and meticulously cut into specially planted grids of maize. Viewed from the air (as is easy with drones) you can see the intricate designs.

The corn maze at Conner Prairie, Fishers, Indiana, is open September 24 through October 30, 2022. The 22,160-foot made has three paths that took about nine hours of machine time to create. Theme: the Headless Horseman as depicted in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving.

It’s the 24th year for the “Cooler Days in the Corn Maze” at Vertuccio Farms in Mesa, Arizona. The intricate maze is open September 30 through October 30, 2022.

In Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County, Cherry Crest Adventure Farms, Ronks, has a five-acre corn maze with more than 2-1/2 miles of paths that are open through November 5, 2022. This year’s theme is National Parks: Celebrating America’s Beauty. This corn maze lets you bring your own flashlight and try it after dark on Friday and Saturday nights.

Harvest Festival 2022: Pumpkin Festivals

Fall vegetables — especially all kinds of squash, gourds, and pumpkins – are the stars at festivals in October.

Papa’s Pumpkin Patch in Bismarck, North Dakota, is open through October 22, 2022. Look for close to 30,000 pumpkins, gourds, decorative corn, and related harvest items along with more than 25 activities for children of all ages to enjoy.

This year marks the 26th anniversary of the Pumpkinfest at the Pony Express National Museum in St. Joseph, Missouri. It takes place October 7, 8 and 9, 2022. Pumpkin Mountain is lighted beginning at 8 p.m. October 7 and 8. event.

The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze takes place in two locations, both in New York State: the Van Courtland Estate in Croton-on-Hudson and the Old Bethpage Village Reconstruction on Long Island.

In the Hudson Valley, more than 7,000 hand-carved pumpkins will be on display through November 20, 2022, in the immersive pumpkin trail on the grounds of the 18^th-century estate. Over on Long Island, the pumpkin trail is on the grounds of a 19^th-century village through November 6, 2022. Both editions include animated, lighted displays of such non-pumpkin items as spiders and dinosaurs.

Harvest Festival 2022: Apple Festivals

Apples were a vital crop for early North American pioneers. Apples were cooked down into apple butter and pressed into cider – water often was contaminated, so cider became the beverage of choice.

The Great Maine Apple Day takes place from noon to 4 p.m. October 14, 2022, at the Common Ground Education Center of Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners in Unity, Maine. There will be guided tours of the Maine Heritage Orchard, workshops, cider pressing, and help identifying unknown apples.

The Maine Heritage Orchard is a ten-acre preservation educational orchard. It’s home to more than 300 varieties of apples and pears traditionally grown in Maine, with more being added each year. The collection includes varieties from all 16 counties in Maine dating back as far as 1630.

The annual Unicoi County Apple Festival is set for October 7 and 8, 2022, in Erwin, Tennessee. It includes the usual attractions of a community celebration – arts and crafts vendors, entertainment, a children’s activity area, and a cooking contest.

First held in 1888, Johnny Appleseed Days in Paradise Ridge is said to be the oldest harvest festival in California. It celebrates the region’s orchard heritage in early October with apple pie and ice cream, as well as apple pie kits with fresh apples, a limited-edition commemorative tea-towel, and “super-secret” Paradise Apple Pie Spice Mix. Don’t miss savoring a slice in the Pie Pavilion.

Harvest Festival 2022 Worldwide

Harvest festivals aren’t limited to North America and Europe. The Mid-Autumn Festival (also known as the Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival, is one of the most widely spread harvest festivals in the world taking place throughout China and the Chinese diaspora. In Iran Mehrgan, originally a Zoroastrian festival, marks harvest time. In Kerala, India, Onam, held in August–September celebrates the rice harvest.

Jews celebrate the week-long harvest festival of Sukkot in the autumn. Observant Jews build a temporary hut or shack called a sukkah, and spend the week living, eating, sleeping, and praying inside it. A sukkah has three walls and a semi-open roof, designed to allow the elements to enter.

Early English settlers took the idea of harvest thanksgiving to North America. The most famous one, of course, is the harvest Thanksgiving first held by the Pilgrims in 1621.