Pick of the Patch

If there's one thing we can all look forward to as the warm summer changes to a cool autumn, it's fall harvest. With the changing of the seasons comes delicious produce. There's a reason harvest is a time of celebration - it's because the food is awesome! Fall's harvest is colourful, hardy, and full of flavor. You don't want to miss out on fresh sweet corn, apples, broccoli, squash and many other vegetables in season. Visit a farmers' market in Campbellford, Hastings, Codrington, Cobourg and Port Hope. Fall farms are a click away so be sure to plan a trip for fresh-from-the-field goodness.

Cultivate is a music festival that happily incorporates musicians, food and family into one super-fun weekend. The ticketed event even has an option for camping and is held at Haute Goat farm, so you know farm animals are also part of the fun (please leave your pets safely at home).

The community of Brighton gathers together to celebrate the fall harvest season at Brighton Applefest, the last weekend of September. Events include a street fair, live entertainment, apple pie contest, children's village, fresh baked goods and so much more. Don't miss the races at the Brighton Speedway for Applefest Shootout Weekend.

See our Calendar of Events for more fall festivals and events.   

Autumn is an ideal time to hop in the car and take a fall driving tour of Northumberland! Rolling hills, lakes and an abundance of farm fields create the perfect fall colour tour. Take the Trent Hills Flavour Trail and feast on fall bounty or tour scenic country roads with colourful views.

If you prefer to be active in cooler weather, view the season's changing colours by cycling our trails. Northumberland is the eastern terminus of the signed Greenbelt Cycling Route that will take you by lush forests, winding rivers, welcoming communities, and roadside farm markets. Top 5 Cycling Routes features the best routes for cycling, complete with accommodations, restaurants and attractions that are registered on the Ontario By Bike network.

Celebrate the season the way it has been done for well over a century in rural Ontario at historic fall fairs. Livestock and trained animal shows; bake-offs; fruit, vegetable, flower and preserve contests; quilt and art shows; farm equipment displays; corn roasts and live entertainment. Each fair is different and some offer midways, demolition derbies, rodeos, tractor pulls, dances and more.

Warkworth Fall Fair and the Port Hope Fall Fair are earlier in September, with the Roseneath Fall Fair near the end of the month.

Halloween wouldn't be complete without a chance to be haunted. Phantom Farm is a Halloween tradition in Northumberland during October. Visitors to the farm (located on Howard Road, north of Port Hope) pay to enter the 4,000 square foot barn that has been fashioned into a true house of nightmares, complete with gory displays, darkened hallways and living, breathing (sometimes bleeding) residents that lash out. If you can make it all the way through without yelling 'chicken', pay a fee to take a hayride through the nearby haunted forest. Riders will experience the horror that lives in the trees and fields.

And no fall experience is complete without a trip through the corn maze. Check out the creative pathways at Cricklewood Farm in Brighton or Burnham Family Farm Market between Cobourg and Port Hope.