Elm Knoll Farm, Somers, Connecticut, circa mid-2000s:
Memories of my favorite pumpkin patch ever.
Back in the 1990s til the mid-2000s or so, Elm Knoll Farm was THE area pumpkin patch destination.
Everything essential to the feeling of autumn and Halloween in New England was concentrated here in rural Somers, CT in the month of October every year.
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This place has everything...
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Here is a list of some of the things I loved most about Elm Knoll, with photos I took over the years:
1.) Pumpkins and gourds (obviously) -- you could choose your pumpkin from pre-picked ones, or take the hayride
out to the fields to pick your own right from the vines. I always opted
for the latter, which was a fairly long ride out to the scenic hills and fields.
2.) Hayrides -- The best kind where the benches are made of hay bales, and the floor is scattered with loose hay, in a rickety old wagon.
3.) A corn maze -- and acres and acres of golden cornstalks drying out in the shady autumn sun.
4.) Gorgeous views -- of the rolling hills, fields of wildflowers, and spooky forests at the edges of the farm, the perfect way to enjoy a brisk, overcast, moody autumn day.
5.) Farm
animals -- geese, chickens, ducks, turkeys, goats, pigs, and puppies.
6.) Weekend entertainment -- which usually included live music, a kids' magician, and a mulled cider & hot chocolate stand.
7.) Scarecrows and other Halloween structures -- made out of cornstalks, hay, and wood; probably designed for children, but delightful to adults, too.
8.) Overgrown and dilapidated old stuff -- crumbling buildings, seemingly abandoned farm equipment, and various other signs of rural decay that make the countryside spooky AF.
9.) And: A fantastic haunted
hayride on weekend nights in October.
Picture this: A hayride through the aforementioned spooky rural woods, on the aforementioned rickety trailer full of sweet-smelling hay, which takes you to various spooky scenes along the journey. Best of all: the entire trail is lined on either side with carved, lit jack o'lanterns, literally miles of them. The moon is out, and you're huddled up with your friends, laughing and enjoying the whole sensory spectacle of the whole thing.
One of the most vivid and precious Halloween memories I have is of being on that hayride sometime in the mid to late 1990s, on a night when the moon was full or nearly so, dark clouds partially obscuring the moonlight as they passed, and the warm glow of jack o'lanterns all along the way; the smell of the hay and the forest, of earth and decaying leaves, of night air and fire and pumpkin guts. The props and scares were all home-made, as I recall; simple and effective. And, the farm itself already felt seriously haunted to begin with, day or night.
How I wish I had photos of those times I went. Those was pre-mobile phone days, and I didn't usually carry a camera. It would have been too dark then to capture anything well enough to do it any justice. Most of it was hidden away in the woods, but here and there around the farm, hints of it were visible, like this facade that was the official entrance to the haunted forest:
This haunt is on my top all-time favorite Halloween attractions: I rate it 10/10 Jackos.
[🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃]
The Demise of Elm Knoll
It seems as though things of this nature never last, and Elm Knoll was no exception. The haunted hayrides stopped sometime in the late 1990s, if I remember right. I imagine it must have been too much work and not enough people to do it. I can't even imagine how much it must have taken just to carve all those hundreds and hundreds of jack o'lanterns for the hayride path -- and to light them every night, on top of that!
Around 2006, the elderly owner of Elm Knoll sold off the Somers property to his son, a sad and heartbreaking ending to the legacy of this wonderful place.
You can read about it here, in an article from about 12 years ago, but fair warning: it's pretty dismal, with accounts of animal neglect, etc.
A farm by the name of Elm Knoll still exists, but on different land. It spent some time at a spot in Enfield, CT for a few years, and is currently located in
Stafford Springs, CT. I have no idea how these iterations of Elm Knoll were/are connected to the old farm, and I haven't been to either location. They might be perfectly nice places, but I doubt they could ever compare to the sheer Halloween greatness that once existed at the old location.
[All photos and content by Petrichor & Pumpkins/ Nebulosus Severine/
CMPauluh, with the exception of the Stefon picture. Do not reuse without permission &
credit.]
