Harvesting in Lancaster County

When I think of the fall harvest, I think of being six years old, flannel-clad, going on a hayride with my mother under the bluest sky I’d ever seen. And of being fifteen, in a slightly bigger flannel, interlocking arms with my crush as dusk darkens over Field of Screams. I think of last year, at the E-town fair, two firework casings pelting me on their descent to earth and leaving a faint Sulphur smell on my red-and-green flannel. “The Garden Spot of America,” Lancaster County, cultivates this diversity, and so much more, in its harvest celebrations. (Wearing non-flannel fabrics is permitted, even encouraged.) This article’s three selections span Lancaster County’s great breadth of harvest festivities, from cozy to bustling, traditional to newfangled, and obscure to beloved.

Amish At Home Meals at the Samuel and Ruth Lapp House
Where: 5341 White Oak Rd., Paradise, PA 17562
When: Mondays–Fridays by Reservation

It’s often that horse power (literally) gets the Lancaster County Amish from place to place in the case it’s pedal power. Samuel and Ruth Lapp House

Paradise, in the heart of Amish country. From above, it’s a patchwork quilt of farmland—panels of yellow, green, and brown threaded together with roads. Now zoom in. Wrap the land around your shoulders. This is the land Samuel and Ruth Lapp live on, where their stone-walled house sits.

“People come in the door, and they take a deep breath,” Ruth said. “My room is very, very simple with quilts and crafts hanging. But I think it’s a smell and just the simplicity of it takes them back to their mothers’ and grandmothers’ smell of cooking in the kitchen.”

Ruth’s food has its roots in this land. Her vegetables come from her garden and from her husband’s market stand. Her recipes have been passed down through generations of Amish women.

Since she started hosting these dinners, it’s been a family enterprise. “I wanted to help my husband pay the farm and still be able to be a stay-at-home mom. We had eight children when we started, so it was something my daughters could help me with.” Her focus on family permeates the atmosphere of her dining room, too. Of her guests, she said, “They just totally relax. If they have children, they don’t need to worry that they’re not safe.”

Ruth bases her schedule around tour groups of 15 to 45 people. Smaller parties can leave a voicemail at (610) 593-1206 to arrange a time that works. Meals are $31, including tax and tip. For more detail about food offerings, visit www.discoverlancaster.com/directory/amish-meals-at-home-with-samuel-and-ruth-lapp.

Lancaster Fig & Pawpaw Fest
Where: 1575 New Danville Pike, Lancaster, PA 17603
When: Saturday, October 3, 11 a.m.–4 p.m.

Vendors at the Fig & Pawpaw Fest

For Bill Lauris and co-founder Taing Vuthy, Lancaster Fig & Pawpaw Fest was not about money. “When we had these fruits, our lives changed,” Lauris said. Part of the motivation to start the festival came from wanting to share that transcendent first-time experience with others and to share in the joy it brings. Why bring figs and pawpaws together? “They ripen nearly at the same time, and they’re both a surprise,” said Lauris.

Although these fruits are more obscure than the standard supermarket fare, Lauris stressed their versatility. “Anything you can do with a banana, you can do with a pawpaw,” Lauris said—and more, it would seem. Pawpaw bread, whoopie pies, salsa, beer. Lauris and a student of his have both made pawpaw ice cream, which he described as a success. In addition to fresh fruit, a selection of prepared foods like these will be available. Attendees will also be able to purchase multiple varieties of the trees themselves.

“We can’t be the only ones who are geeks like this,” he and Taing concluded last year. Half joking, Lauris suggested they start a festival, but Taing, of Taing Realty Group, believed it could work. “He cleared all of his land for this.” Of the event, Lauris said, “This is his. His property. His idea.” Another of his contributions—musicians, magicians, and bubble artists will help keep children entertained, and food carts will serve meals of more than just fruit. “It’s for families. It’s for everybody,” said Lauris.

A highlight of the inaugural festival for Lauris was seeing his Lebanese mentor, fellow fig man Bass Samaan, running a stand for his nursery, Trees of Joy. When Samaan started growing figs in Lancaster County, “They’d say, ‘You can’t grow them here,’” according to Lauris. “He proved everybody wrong.” Samaan’s love for figs fostered that same passion in Lauris, who intensified it in Taing. “We’re all here because of you,” Lauris told Samaan.

Although people came from as far as Florida for the first Lancaster Fig & Pawpaw Fest, “Last year was a test run,” Lauris said. This year? “It’s gonna be bigger.” In addition to expanding the selection of vendors, this year’s event will feature competitions in categories including biggest fig leaf and biggest pawpaw. Tickets are $12.51. For more information and online ticket sales, visit their Facebook page

Wagon ride at Landis Valley Village Farm Museum’s Harvest Days

Harvest Days at Landis Valley Village & Farm Museum
Where: 2451 Kissel Hill Rd,
Lancaster, PA 17601

When: Saturday–Sunday,
October 10–11, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

Just three months after a storm toppled trees onto historic buildings, resulting in weeks of closures, Landis Valley Village & Farm Museum is bouncing back with its largest event of the year: the 65th annual Harvest Days.

“We have a lot of people that come every year. Regardless of how many years they’ve been coming, there’s always something new,” said Carrie Rhinier, the museum’s special event coordinator. This year, the museum has purchased a team of draft horses to plow fields and complete other agricultural tasks.

“Looking to see how things used to be is really the draw,” Rhinier said. Rustically costumed demonstrators revive traditional cooking, smithing, and textile processing techniques that kept 19th-century Pennsylvania German communities afloat. “We usually have a lot of the buildings populated at this time so that you have a full village experience.” Like the demonstrators, some particularly dedicated visitors come to Harvest Days in period dress too. “It’s great. We actually encourage it,” said Rhinier.

Attendees can enjoy the fruit of the harvest by picking pumpkins, watching demonstrators produce apple butter, applesauce, and sauerkraut, or getting lost in a sorghum maze.

Harvest Days will also feature live music, with Hammer Creek Bluegrass Band playing on Saturday and The Happy Wanderers, a German oompah band, playing on Sunday.

The programming for children offers a break from hyper-technological play. “Nothing’s electrified,” said Rhinier. A tractor cart will circle the museum, giving passengers a full view of the campus. Rope making and games of skill let youth challenge both their minds and their bodies.

Rhinier hopes visitors will walk away able to “look back and understand how much work it actually took in order to create something, and to have that appreciation for how things have progressed in time.” Tickets range from $10–14. For online ticket sales and further reading, visit landisvalleymuseum.org/event/harvest-days-at-landis-valley-museum