While it still feels like summer, the first official day of autumn was Thursday and Hunts Orchard begins offering fall activities this weekend. 

The orchard, located off I-29 in Amazonia, will begin offering hayrides and more beginning Saturday morning and continuing every Saturday and Sunday through October. 

As previously reported, Hunts Orchard opened under a new family in June. Jeff Miller took over April 1st and Keith, Jeff’s father, who helps out at the orchard said they will kick off fall activities on Saturday. 

“Our busy time is just starting,” Miller said. “We’re starting our pumpkin fest (Saturday). We’ll have hayrides for the kids, a petting zoo, a hay maze, face painting, just all sorts of things for the kids to do. A trip to the pumpkin patch and we’ll have, of course, some special things on sale.” 

For five dollars, children can enjoy the hayride, petting zoo and the hay maze. Miller said they will continue to offer the same items and some new ones at the store. 

“Of course, our main seller is apples this time of year, we also have our own homemade cider, it’s made here on the premises,” Miller said. “We have candied apples that we make here and then we have fall fruits, squash, we have a sizable selection of Amish jams and jellies, Chase candy. We just got a contract with a maker of jerky so we’re trying to expand in some areas, so we’ve got a pretty good range of things here.” 

Miller said his favorite things about fall are the fall evenings and apples. 

“I brought my family here when my kids were small and now we’ve brought the grandkids here and it’s something we did all along,” Miller said. “So when it came up available we were really excited about being able to make it work some more.” 

Hunts Orchard is open from 9 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. on Sunday. Hayrides will be offered until 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.

For more information, visit Hunts Orchard Facebook page.