Last Call For The Pumpkin Patch At Reilly’s

Today, my friends, an era ends. A staple in the lives of north-of-the-city Yinzers closes its doors (and fields) forever for the fall season.

Reilly’s Summer Seat Farm is closing, and today is the last-ever day for its fall harvest festival.

If you grew up in the Avonworth Community, Reilly’s has probably always been a part of your life. You probably got your pumpkin here every year since you were old enough to sit on a hayride. For many of us, it was our first job. (Resident Weenie Girl & Nacho Queen, 1994-1996, representing!) And nothing really beat the old Reilly’s October bonfires when you were a teenager.

Naturally, we had to get in one last visit.

When you arrive at Reilly’s, you park and then walk to the lower area of the farm to purchase your ticket.

This year, tickets were $7, and it gets you the hayride and all the free stuff (like the petting zoo!!!) plus your choice of 3 Special Activities like milking a fake cow (husband refused to milk a fake cow), corn stalk maze, boo barn, or face painting (husband refused to let me get my face painted).

Then hop on the hayride, and off you go!

The hayride takes you a short distance up the hill to the great pumpkin patch, and this is where things get difficult.

Here’s how it usually goes:
Husband: ::picks up first pumpkin he sees:: Look! This one is perfect!
Fox: ::looks at pumpkin:: hmmmmmmmm maaaaaaaybe but I’m not sure yet. Pick it up and carry it around with us just in case.
::Fox proceeds to look at every single damn pumpkin in the pumpkin patch while husband drags 20+ pound enormous pumpkin around::
Fox: ::sighs:: I think you were right, the first one was the best.

Husband: ::grumbles but manages to feel smug anyway::

It was a really tough choice this year, but we picked the most perfect pumpkin in the whole patch. (The first one we saw, of course.)

After you pick the perfect pumpkin, you wait for the tractor to come back around and pick you up.

The ride from the pumpkin patch to the weigh station is the bumpiest, so hold on tight to your pumpkin.

This year is our tenth anniversary of going to Reilly’s together. Here’s our first pumpkin patch picture, from 2006.

And here we are this year! We don’t look almost a full decade older…. right??

After you weigh & pay for your pumpkin, it’s time to run down the hill, drop it off at your car, and run back up the hill to hit all the cool activities at the farm.

Every year, we track how tall Michael is. It’s just not looking good.

I sadly ate my last-ever Reilly’s Farm hot dog. They aren’t boiled anymore!! And they have exciting new options like kielbasa & hamburgers. Back in my day, we had boiled hot dogs & meatball sandwiches from a Crock Pot. And once, I let the hot dogs boil too hot & long and they exploded in the center, but it turned out okay, because that just made a little crater down the center that I could put more toppings into.

Sigh. The good old days. I was a terrific Weenie Girl. Even if I’m still not over the horrors of making Crock Pot nacho cheese sauce from a giant can on a 42-degree morning. Oh, youth.

ANYWAY there are PONY RIDES (which I wasn’t allowed to go on), but I could see the ponies!

But BEST OF ALL there is a petting zoo. And it’s free to walk around and pat the animals, but for just $3, you can buy a little bottle and feed them.

This is pretty much the happiest I have ever been in my entire life.

There are even more activities than what we’ve pictured here. For the little ones, there are a TON of cool things to do, including the Boo Barn, which is like a miniature (not-too-terribly-spooky) haunted house for kids. That was the BEST when you were little. It was like, ‘HOW MANY TIMES CAN WE GO THROUGH THE BOO BARN IN 3 HOURS?’ (Sorry, parents!) There are also games & goodybags & little pedal carts you can ride. Oh, and a giant slide down the hill! Seriously, you can easily spend all afternoon!

So today is your last chance to visit this amazing autumn event. Even aren’t scarred for life by the smell from that time you melted a spatula making the Otis Spunkmeyer cookies, and even if you never came home with your hair totally filled with glitter from the sugar from making cotton candy all afternoon, if you’re from north of the city, Reilly’s has probably been a part of your life. I’ll always be grateful for the memories here, both from visiting and from my first-ever job there (those Red Hot Chili Peppers albums weren’t going to buy themselves!). I am so sad to see it go, but so happy to have had all the years of great memories.

Reilly’s is located in Ohio Township & is open today from 10am until 6pm.