Local farms ripe for picking as fall season begins

Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - A staple of the fall season in Western New York is visiting local farms to pick apples and pumpkins, get your hands on fresh apple cider and doughnuts, and enjoy all of the corn mazes and attractions.

With the fall right around the corner, local farms in Western New York are ready to welcome back residents and visitors.

"We are open every day, and there's no admission price during the week," said Mindy Vizcarra, partner at Becker Farms in Gasport. "Not all the activities are happening during the week, but our petting zoo and playground is open for the kids, and, of course, you can come and pick your own apples. The winery and brewery are open with the farm market. We've got our pies, donuts, all kinds of good things to eat as well during the week as on the weekends."

Vizcarra says the weekends are when Becker Farms does its fall family fun when everything happens.

"We have 'Becker Mountain' with our giant slide. New this year, we have pig races, we have a brand new playground area, we also have a train for the kids to ride on. We also have our corn maze, our grape maze, our rope maze, and the barn and the hay bales the kids can play in. So there's lots of fun things to do, both for kids and adults," Vizcarra said with WBEN.

Becker Farms is celebrating its 130th season this year, with a lot of change happening over the years to keep expanding the business and remain successful.

"My husband, Oscar, and I opened up the farm for retail. We took it over from my grandfather. That was 45 years ago. So we planted all our crops, and started our Agra-entertainment at that time," Vizcarra noted. "Then, 20 years ago, we opened our winery and started making wine from the crops that we grow, and then we added hard cider as well. And then, 15 years ago, we opened the brewery, because we knew Western New Yorkers love their beer and their microbrews. I can't believe how time flies, but we're trying to mark the occasion with our anniversary."

In Clarence, the Great Pumpkin Farm is celebrating their 29th season. The farm operates similarly to Becker Farms, but Isaac Domingue - Chief Fun Officer at the farm - says most of the attractions wait for the weekend.

"The pumpkin farm is open seven days a week. We're open primarily in the pumpkins, the bakery, the Halloween store during the week, but you can really look forward to the biggest attractions here on the weekends," said Domingue with WBEN. "We're open 10 a.m.-to-7 p.m. daily, but on the weekends, we've got our carnival rides, our carnival food, our attractions. Ae do all of our cider donuts fresh here every weekend, we've got bars open, and all the fun rides that come with the carnival. We have got the giant mega slide, apple cannons, hayride, zombie train, just to name a few."

When it comes to Halloween coming up in about a month's time, plans are more dependent on the day it falls on. Meanwhile, Columbus Day weekend is set in stone.

"We are open on Halloween, but the weekend before really is the biggest weekend. That's when everybody goes out," Domingue said. "They're trying to pack in their fall festivities, and we see the most people that week before wrapping up before Halloween.

"Columbus Day, it's a really exciting weekend for us. We're open three days that weekend, and have some special activities for the kids, and also the big pumpkin drop. We do a drop from 50 feet up in the air of a 1,000 pound pumpkin. We've also got the weigh in, where farmers will come to Western New York from all over and weigh in their largest pumpkin for a cash prize. And our big explosion event, we really love to make that event as fun as possible. We've got live music, we've got the live DJ. I think there will be even fireworks this year as well."