Annual trip to Green Bluff puts family in festive mood
Fresh pumpkin donuts. Steaming hot cider. Homemade apple dumplings. There’s only one place where you’re guaranteed to find all three – the harvest festival in Green Bluff.
Ever since our sons were tiny, we’ve taken them to the Green Bluff festival to pick their Halloween pumpkins. It’s our annual autumn tradition. So, on a recent sparkling Sunday afternoon, the kids scrambled out of the car at our first stop, Siemers Farm. While the boys scoured the patch for the perfect pumpkin, I loaded our green handcart with Honey Crisp apples, yellow onions and gallons of cider.
After depositing their pumpkin selections with me, the boys took off to navigate the corn maze. They raced to be the first to reach the top of the castle located in the center of the maze.
Knowing the kids would be occupied for a while, my husband, Derek, and I browsed the arts and crafts booths. Derek was quickly seduced by the free samples of Papa Ray’s Lemon White Chocolate Scones. Soon several bags of baking mixes landed in our overflowing cart. We meandered from vendor to vendor, tasting pickled garlic, sniffing scented candles and admiring glittering headdresses.
When the kids finally found their way out of the corn maze, it was time to move on to our next destination, Harvest House. The smell of warm pumpkin donuts wafted over the grounds, and a team of horses pulled a hay wagon through the orchard. We sat at a table and devoured the spicy, sweet pastries while debating our next move.
The youngest clamored for the blow-up jumping castle and haunted house, while the older boys groaned in boredom. So we decided to make me happy by heading for the craft sale at the Green Bluff Grange. “Those ‘craft sale’ signs are like a magnet for Mom,” complained 16-year-old Alex.
However, he perked up when he remembered there’d be free samples of soft peanut brittle inside the Grange. An abundance of Christmas crafts, quilted wall hangings, knit scarves and decorative items makes the Grange one of my favorite destinations each year. I quickly added a set of quilted Christmas placemats to our purchases.
By this time the boys had tired of donuts and free samples and were ready for some real food. We headed across the road to Green Bluff Community Church, our annual luncheon destination. We’d discovered the church one rainy autumn afternoon several years ago. We enjoyed safe refuge from inhospitable weather, while eating a delicious meal made even sweeter by the knowledge that our dollars were going to a worthy cause.
Alas, while the church still served up the best apple dumplings and pie available, they no longer offered more solid luncheon fair. We let the kids choose their lunch from a variety of commercial vendors scattered throughout the Harvest House grounds.
After lunch it was time to visit our family’s favorite Green Bluff stop: Knapp’s. Here we found the true essence of what this farming community is all about. There are no inflatable castles at Knapp’s and no pricey mazes. Yet this is where we end up spending most of our time each year.
The boys spilled out of the van. “I wanna chase some chickens,” yelled 8-year-old Sam.
While I browsed among the squash and cabbage selections, the kids climbed on tractors and antique cars. The miniature donkeys captivated even the most ambivalent teen.
But the real reason we’re here is the pumpkin cannon. Every 30 minutes or so during harvest weekends, Larry Knapp loads his makeshift cannon with a gourd and launches it across the road at a target 1,500 feet away.
“I heard about the pumpkin cannon from a neighbor,” says Knapp. “I looked it up on the Internet and assembled one.”
For eight years he’s packed pumpkins with straw and loaded them into his homemade contraption, and launched them across the road. He’s yet to hit the target.
No matter. Crowds assemble just to watch the feat. While waiting for the launch, Sam scrambled through the straw bale maze and jumped from stacked bales into a cushion of wispy straw.
A small boy added straw to the pile and informed me, “Once, the pumpkin hit a helicopter! The pilot had to land on the road and there was mashed pumpkin all over his windshield.”
Not true, said Larry Knapp, but he added, “I do tell the crowd we have to watch out for low-flying aircraft.”
Knapp doesn’t charge for any of the activities offered on his farm. Instead he hangs a donation bucket near the Goat Mountain. His wife, Karen, said, “I keep telling Larry, ‘let’s just be a farm.’ ”
And that’s exactly what they are. A place to pick berries in season, buy some squash, or watch a pumpkin hurtle through the air.
Our autumn jaunt to Green Bluff provides a welcome connection to our agricultural roots. There’s nothing like biting into a juicy just-picked apple, and I’m glad our kids know that pumpkin doesn’t start out in a can.