Have some fall fun at Deans Farm

This story is in the fall issue of Wilsonian.

For many families in eastern North Carolina, and beyond, fall means a trip — or more than one — to Deans Farm Market during the farm’s annual Fall Fest weekends through Oct. 27.

“Some families visit us every weekend during hayride season,” said Courtney Sharp, farm operator and educator. “They spend the entire day with us. It’s like an agricultural theme park and playground. People can bring their own food back there. Families can have birthday parties here, and the whole family meets out front and gets a hayride to the back of the farm.”

LOTS TO DO AT FALL FEST

“We have people come here from all over during the hayride season,” Sharp said. “We have families who live in Florida but have other family members living in New York and New Jersey, for example, and they meet halfway in Wilson at Deans Farm and do the hayrides and other activities.”

Fall Fest includes barrel train rides, interaction with farm animals and fun at the jump pad, giant slide, corn pit, giant spider web, rock ’n’ rollers, gem mining, toy duck races and a soybean maze. This year’s soybean maze is sponsored by local attorney Rhyan Breen, who will serve as maze designer.

On Saturdays during Fall Fest, food trucks and vendors fill the area directly behind the market. Deans Farm Market itself is enlarging its boutique offerings.

Entering its fourth year is the newest tradition at Deans Farm’s Farm Fest — the haybale decorating contest. Local businesses and non-profits sponsor a hay bale and decorate it any way they like.

“We are very excited about the hay bale decorating contest and businesses are excited about it,” Sharp said.

School field trips during the week are also extremely popular at Deans Farm Market. Fall field trips include hayrides, whereas spring field trips focus on strawberries. Sharp and her staff are working on a puppet show for this fall that features Spookley the Square Pumpkin, who has been featured before during hayride season. Spookley offers an anti-bullying message, telling kids, “It’s OK to be square.”

Students from Wake, Johnston, Wayne, Nash, Lenoir and Franklin counties make trips to Deans Farm Market every autumn for hayride field trips. A few schools in Wilson County also attend.

“For some reason, not as many schools from Wilson take advantage of the hayride field trips,” Sharp said. Teachers who’d like to visit can reach out to Deans Farm Market at 252-237-0967 or send the farm a message via its Facebook page.

“The hayride field trips are very popular with classes with special needs students,” Sharp said. “That’s because all the activities are far from the highway, and it’s safer if you have ‘runners’ in your class. And the playground and activity area are closed to the public during the week for safety reasons.”

AUTUMN PROGRAMS CRUCIAL TO LIFE OF FARM

Although Deans Farm now grows strawberries throughout the fall, winter and spring thanks to its greenhouse program, the autumn hayrides draw customers into the farm during what would otherwise be a slow season.

“It provides a large influx of patrons when the season is slow,” Sharp said. “That is also why we opened a farm commercial kitchen that is open year-round. We don’t serve hot food out of it, but we offer refrigerated and frozen dishes. The market sells fresh vegetables year-round and we source high quality products that we don’t grow from local farmers whenever possible.”

Sharp operates Deans Farm with her husband, James Sharp. The Sharps began leasing the farm in 2003 from the Deans family, who ran the farm from its inception in 1965. The Deans family is still very active in farm operations. “Agri-tourism is growing in N.C., but we are also a true working farm,” Sharp said. “ Farming is the No. 1 priority for us. Our daughter, Allyson, wants to take over the farm someday. We hope to make it a family tradition in agriculture as well as agri-tourism, bringing people to farms, providing a tourist attraction and teaching them about farm life.”

Fall Fest runs every weekend from Sept. 28 through Oct. 27. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and noon to 4 p.m. on Sundays. The last hayride leaves at 4 p.m. Fall Fest tickets are $16 per person (children under 2 years old are admitted free) and are purchased at the farm market building on hayride days. The ticket includes one pumpkin per person that is picked out during the hayride. Deans Farm is located at 4231 Highway N.C. 42.

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