Evergreen Farms fall festival 2009 (Elgin)

There is just one weekend left of this year’s Evergreen Farms’ fall festival, the “Pumpkin Hunt.” This is another Christmas tree farm in Elgin that hosts “pumpkin” events for families to enjoy.  We have always gone to the Elgin Christmas Tree Farm, but this year we decided to try out Evergreen Farms for a change of pace.  This farm was a bit harder to find than the other one, and for a city-slicker such as myself (as I am far more comfortable wandering the streets of Tokyo and NYC than driving on roads designated only with “CR” and a number) I was getting a bit nervous when we just kept driving deeper into what felt like “nothingness.”  We finally found Evergreen Farms, and just a word of caution for cars that ride lower.  The road into the farm is paved with rocks so most cars pulled off on the grass until the grass ended.  There are no admission and no parking fees.

Right away we could tell that this was a smaller pumpkin patch than the one at Elgin.  Our kids spotted immediately the bright red, vintage fire truck, and they wanted to go for a ride  Tickets are required so we popped into the gift shop and picked up 4 tickets for $4 each.  We climbed up on the truck, and an Evergreen Farms staff person handed our children their own plastic firemen’s hat.  Once the fire truck was full, we set off for a bumpy ride around the farm with a quick demonstration with the fire hose.  That was definitely the highlight for our son.  He loved it, sirens and all.

We hopped off the fire truck and purchased two more tickets (adults free) for the tractor-pull ride that took us out into the Christmas trees.  Each child with a ticket can hunt for two miniature pumpkins.  Speaking just as an adult, the pumpkin hunt was kind of lame, but for our preschooler and toddler, they just thought this was the most fun thing to do.  The tickets were $2 each.  It was fun just to walk through the Christmas trees.  It reminded me of the times my parents drove us to a Christmas tree farm to pick out a tree.  Once our kids gathered their two pumpkins, we hopped back on the tractor trailer back to the main area.

We bought another ticket ($2) for our kids to play the pumpkin slide.  Each ticket buys a turn at the hand water pump to push three miniature pumpkins down the water slide.  When all three pumpkins land in the water trough at the end, the child gets to choose a prize.

All the rides require tickets, but most of the games are free.  They had a few tether-ball stands, hop scotch, tic-tac-toe, bean bag toss.  There was an area to see goats and donkeys up close.  Our kids found a shed with hay bales, and they probably had more fun climbing and jumping off the hay than all the other games.

There were not that as many pumpkins to choose as compared to the Elgin Christmas Tree Farm.  I don’t know if that is because we came the week before Halloween, and the pumpkin selection had already been picked over.  We did find a few large pumpkins to get a few of tbe obligatory yearly pumpkin pictures. If you still need to get pumpkin pictures this year, you’re probably better off staying in town and hitting up one of the Methodist churches or going to Red Barn, but for the experience of riding in a vintage fire truck at a fall festival, this is the one to attend.  Despite this being a smaller affair than the Elgin Christmas Tree Farm’s pumpkin festival, we had a fun time.  We also liked it that there was not a huge crowd.

There is a converted barn area that has picnic tables, and they sell refreshments for $2.50 and under.  This is also where they have activities set up for babies.

November 1st wraps up the 2009 Pumpkin festival at Evergreen Farms.

Evergreen Farm’s Blog

Evergreen Farms Christmas Tree
242 Monkey Rd
Elgin, TX 78621-5506
(512) 281-4833

Related posts:

1. Elgin Christmas Tree Farm fall festival (2009)
2. Sweet Berry Farm’s Harvest the Fall Fun 2010 (Marble Falls)
3. さつき祭り Japanese May Festival 2009
4. Fall Festival at Children’s Center of Austin (free to the public)
5. Cedar Park Farms to Market