Piggy Races, Corn Pits & More Pittsburgh Fall Fun

0:00This is CityCast Pittsburgh. I'm Megan Harris and here's what Pittsburgh's talking about. Marla Sofia, do y'all like fall? Yes, absolutely best season. I also love fall and I'm very excited for the hot hot heat to break. Yes, as we're recording this, it is quite warm. We had false fall and now we're back to the weird oppressive heat. It's so annoying. Are y'all Apple fall people or pumpkin fall people? Apple 100%. There are way more types of apples and I think that's fun. That's true. You're not a PSL person either, so that tracks Marla what about you? I'm pumpkin. I love... I do love apple pie, but I don't know. I'm a PSL girlie and just love a pumpkin. Love a good pumpkin. And I respect that. I respect the coziness of the PSL just not for me. See, I think I aspire to be an Apple person, but I'm actually a pumpkin person if that makes

1:01sense. Okay, last one, cozy or scary fall? Cozy 100%. But I'm cozy year round. I'm spooky. I love the spooky. Spooky season of it all. Okay, okay. I feel like we're learning a lot here. I was CityCast Pittsburgh contributor, so feel low. And we are also introducing a new voice here at CityCast Pittsburgh's new creative producer, Marla Kaufman. Welcome. Welcome to CityCast. Thank you. Thank you. I'm so happy to be here. You've been here a minute, but this is the first time you're speaking on microphone to the people. What is one thing that folks listening should know about you? So people may already know me as the creator of Pittsburgh personified, which is a meme account that I know has been referenced on the show a couple times, but I don't think fans will work. Thank you so much, but I don't believe people have really heard my voice or seen me before. So I'm very excited to bring my love of Pittsburgh to your email inboxes and to your ears as well as to your phone screens. And also,

2:06like, not just the joy, which is excellent, but like also the sarcasm and the humor, because like truly top notch. Thank you. Thank you so much. We are all here today to talk about fall events. So some of the big seasonal experiences, a lot of us are aware of like fall fest and farm tours and things like that, but so many things kick off this weekend. So we're going to talk a little bit about things we have tried and liked things that are still on our list or just look really interesting to us. And a teeny tiny taste, a little preview of the spooky stuff that we are looking forward to later in the season. First up, we're going to talk about what we are calling fantasy fall. I think I've only been to one of these, but I feel like it's like sort of a trend, all of a sudden that like we're leaning harder as a region into like this sense of like whimsy and fantasy. I mean, moon wizarding fest, this sounds absolutely cozy. There's potions going on, boozy and non-alcoholic and the ticket sales there support local park. So that feels extremely wholesome to me, not at all spooky. Hobbit, I went to Hobbit Fest last year actually. It is

3:08it is a joy. So this is in Valencia. Again, this feels cozy. Hobbits, life folk music. And they have this like Hobbit house thing that's really only child sized, but I have seen adults crawling in and out of this thing. That is their year round. Like they built it for Hobbit Festival, I think. It got there around the same time they did their inaugural Hobbit Fest, but it is adorable. Also, Bloom Cafe has some of the best coffee in the region. We go out there sometimes for family. It is it is a lot of fun. What about like farm fest? Are there any places that you all like can't miss when it comes to like Apple picking pumpkin picking things like that? So I really love the tracks farm fall festival. I went a number of years ago and it's your really classic cute fall farm experience. There are hay rides, there are candied apples, there's pumpkin picking, there's a corn maze that you're not going to see me in because someone will probably have to come rescue me. I haven't been there in a couple of years, but I specifically remember how delicious

4:09the apple cider was. And on their Instagram account announcing this year's festival, there's a very adorable video of some baby goats laying in a puddle pile together. So I imagine that means there are going to be some animals to see as well, which cute baby goats. Please sign me up. Tracks, of course, in Finleyville, that's Washington County. So, Sophia, what about you? What's your like can't miss spot? I have been going to Swargold's orchard like ever since I came to Pittsburgh about four years ago. Classic. So yeah, my hot take though is skip the apple picking. It is no apples. You don't do the apples. Okay, so they have a giant apple barn smack in the middle of the whole thing. And I think that is your one-stop shop. I do not want to schlep up the giant hill and carry my apples. Plus, the apple barn has way more varieties to choose from than they usually have in the fields. Because usually in the fields, the apples are like you get like two or three varieties each week. And then Swargold also has an apple chart on their website. So if you're looking

5:13for a specific variety, I check their website to see if like my favorites ginger gold available now Mootsu apple coming in mid-October. So if you're a hardcore applehead, check out their apple chart. My other pro tip for Swargold's is you can prep ahead of the holidays, especially if you have friends who are like gluten free and not free or vegan. Because they have two grocery building barn things there. So the first one like right up at the front. But they also have naturally Swargold's, which is like further into the farm. They have so much knowledge and friendly stuff. Yeah, and they also have like an arsenal like, you know, like the cider house, like the cidery there too. They have tons of kids activities. But complete accident by family and I stumbled into it. The last, we were literally just looking for a playground for my kid and did not think about the timing. And as we were like approaching Swargold, so it's like, oh no, is it fall first time have we accidentally done it? And it was the last weekend before. So fall fest at Swargold starts this coming weekend as you're hearing this. But I was so excited to have hit it like right before the crowds because

6:15they had everything up. It just wasn't like completely packed like it normally is, you know. Yeah. And that one is a packed one. So I like to get there early apple barn in and out. Don't need a pick. There are a ton of farms around this region. If you've lived in Western Pennsylvania for 10 seconds, you've probably noticed. So just a few that we've noticed have like big farm festival type things. Spring house in Washington County. How do you say this with Shinnah? Shinnah? Anybody know how to say it? I have no idea. I've said it Shinnah. But Shinnah farm. This one's on Wexford. If you know, let us know. Cheeseman, they do their big pumpkin festival and fright farm. I feel like I always see stuff for Simmons farm. Marla, did you know about that one? Yeah. I saw on their website. They don't have specific dates listed yet. But it does say fall activities begin in September and are happening seven days a week throughout the month. And I assume that goes through October as well. And some of the things that it includes are hay rides, a petting zoo, flower cutting. There's even

7:16something called a piggy race, which I don't think involves real pigs. But it looks like it could be fun. And they are even having a bonfire on October 3rd, which includes the hay rides and all the other activities and tickets for that are $15. Very fun. Yeah. So then some others, Shinnah Genoski, Genoski, does their big pumpkin land thing? Reegers has a pay as you go. On their listing, they had something about a corn cannon would love to know about that. That's I have never heard of one. That sounds fun. That sounds like pumpkin chunking. But a different variety of it. That's honestly my favorite thing about some of the farm events. It's just reading their event listings. It's never front facing, I feel like. Like they always advertise the big stuff, like picking gourds and hay rides and corn maces. And that's all great. But then they'll have like really unhinged ones too. A lot of them like spring house because theirs includes something called spider climb, hamster wheel, potato pelter, pumpkin ring toss, farm style ping pong. I don't know what any of

8:19that is. But it sounds fun. Different from regular ping pong. How? No idea. No idea. I've got to go to find out. The other one I'll throw out is freedom farms. I think they're usually weekends in October. A lot of them are starting to add these, but they have something called a corn pit, which is just like a giant barn full of sheld hard corn so that kids and adults can like roll around in it. Like it's a sandbox. And there's like slides and toys and stuff in there. And it's hilarious watching grown-ass people lay down and do corn angels in the middle of this thing. I love it. That sounds like it could be marketed as a wellness trap at some point. Honestly. It's very tactile. Like I feel like if you're like a sensory person, you would either love it or hate it. That sounds like my kind of time. All right. We're moving from farms to sort of harvesting celebrations. I feel like that's sort of the other big category this time of year. There's a bunch of them. Swicklies is really popular at the harvest fest. That's September 12. The waterfront is doing there's the day after. And they're the ones that have that great pumpkin

9:21race. I stumbled into this a couple of years ago. It's so cute. They do races for small dogs. And I don't know if they have to be in costume, but most of them are. They do. I think they actually give you up costume. It's that specifically pumpkin costume too. So I don't know if that's new. I've never been to this, but I am so excited to really try to make it. I have race time in my calendar. 3.30 p.m. You'll find me there for more, I think the dogs and the pumpkins. But there's going to be a pumpkin patch pumpkin decorating. So also sounds very up your alley, Marla. When I first saw this, I got so excited because the dog and costume element. And I was thinking about bringing my own dog who he's paralyzed and he uses wheels to get around. So I was thinking before I realized that it was a pumpkin only costume. I was thinking about dressing him up like a gladiator and turning his wheels into a chariot. But like you said, the costume theme is pumpkin only, which is probably just

10:23well because my dog does not necessarily play well with others. But I still would love to go and just see lots of under 25 pound dogs running around in pumpkin costumes. And for what it's worth, I saw a ton of dogs of all sizes down there in all kinds of costumes. I think just to do the race, they have to be pumpkin and under 25 pounds. But like there was a giant saint Bernard that was there that was dressed up as a Dalmatian, which I thought was sort of a move. They dressed one dogs breed up as a different breed. And I spent the entire time laughing at that thing. He looked happy though. So it's an all dogs welcome situation just not for the race. Correct. A little further out. The reason I put this on the list is because of some of again, some of the activities of these things. There's a festival in Scotdale, so just south of Greensburg. But they're doing monster truck viewing. I don't know if they're bringing the monster trucks in for this. If it's like a separate activity, there's also a parking meter decoration contest, like the small town of it all. I think

11:27those should be combined together. Monster trucks find the little parking spaces. There's a ton of these little local harvest festival type things. I highly encourage you like check your township, your burrow website and see if there's one in your region. Like just on September 19th, there's Robinson, Evan City. I think that's the first day of the counties. Hey, day celebration too. They do a night in Hartwood acres and then another night in South Park, where it's free to have hay rides inflatables, puppet shows, like balloon tying people pettings you. It's a ton of stuff. This time they're advertising a 10 foot soccer dart board currency of the Pittsburgh River Hounds and that they're going to have like ammo the mascot there too, which sounds very cute. That sounds great. And then also September 26th is a very big day. Butler, Krafton, Coriopolis, Cecil, Ben Evan and Plum. All of them are doing their community fall fast. And just a reminder, as you're listening to this, if you need further inspiration, if you'd like to see things written down, we'll have a week at our shout outs to our huge list of all of these things in chronological order.

12:31So you can see what's open this weekend and maybe what's in your region. Next up is October fest. So yeah, I feel like you and I both were like, confused about this last year. So fun fact in case you did not know, we did the googling. October fest is celebrated in September because the German, the variant people decided that October as a month was too gloomy and rainy and gross. So they needed to move it up a smidge so that they could avoid the bad weather. I have, this makes me laugh every year because it just sounds so familiar to the plate of Pittsburgh. That's so interesting. I never knew that. I know I always wondered. So great to learn new things. You know, October fest does run usually through the first weekend in October. So, you know, celebrations, you know, range one weekend, a couple weeks, but you know, it's Pittsburgh. We kind of just do what we want and drink when we want, I think. I'm so excited about all the German food. I love some schnitzel, I love some potato pancakes with apple butter. I personally don't drink, but there are so many N.A. options now for beers

13:36that I think there's going to be, you know, still a lot of options at these October fests to try some great fall beers. Fall beers. And also, like you said, just like the food of it all. Like we have a long like a history with German culture in our region or like Eastern European culture in our region. So this is like kind of a fun time to see that melting pot on display here in the region. It seems like some of the early ones start September 12th this weekend. Like freedom farms and grist house are doing theirs one day only. So you get beer from grist house and like polka. They're going to have a polka band and German food. Pittsburgh brewing is doing theirs this weekend. Then another date later in the month. They're going to be releasing their October fest logger. So I think this one's ticketed, but you get to try that. They're having like a Stein holding competition, axe throwing. There's a chainsaw artist. Yeah. Making art from chainsaws with chainsaws.

14:38I think with kind of like I was at well, at least I was picturing like how they do ice sculptures, you know, I was picturing paint brushes like to the blade. Surely that's not it. No, that's definitely not it. The next weekend there's going to be way more either kicking off or like, you know, again, some of them are just like one day only like cannonsbergs doing their the very end October fest potato dumplings to look forward to Marla. That would be up your alley. Green tree and Troy Hills are September 19th. I love Troy Hills like the way they bear interpretation of it because they call it pigtoberfest, which is like another callback to Pittsburgh history when real toastery was once called pig hill like they would drive the pigs up and down the hill for slaughter. Yeah. Yeah. And then I know pen brewery always does a big October fest. It sounds like they're still moving forward with this. Although I know there's a lot up in the air with pen brewing and whether it's going to be for sale. So I guess TBD how it shakes out

15:42this year, but their dates are September 18th of 20th and then the 25th of the 27th. Yeah, I'm unclear how they're going to be serving. They say they're serving food like normal, but they're kitchen. I mean, their kitchen they think are fine. They just haven't been operational for months because they had to scale down while they're waiting for a buyer and to take care of things. We've talked about that a little bit on the show, but their October fest has historically been a great time. It's like they open every level. People are partying in the parking lot. You drink your beer out of a milk jug. Like that's part of the stick of it all. And they have those like beer caves with purple lights in the cobblestone like beer gardens. So like it is really a vibe when it's all up and going. I know you usually you can see people partying from 28 when you drive by and hear them too. I've never gone, but I've always had film on driving by and seeing the October fest. So hopefully it's still happening in full force this year. Yeah, I think it's their biggest money maker of the year. So I'm not surprised they're going forward even though it's probably a little different than it has been in years past. Yeah, so many October fest if you don't want to be at, you know, maybe

16:47the biggest one. Don't want to be goked up by people driving in their cars. You can check out Pittsburgh.citycast.fm for the full list. That's how the fun Sophia. But if you do want to go to the biggest one, the big big one this year is probably Proustburg, which is the city of Pittsburgh's official October fest. That will be 11 days of bruise views and both variant fun. And if you remember from last year, this is what brought the Ferris wheel to the Roberto Clemente Bridge. I did not go to this last year or ride the Ferris wheel, but I was very intrigued. But if people remember, there was some questions about the safety of the Ferris wheel on the bridge. So that might be why I held off this year, but it seems like everything went well last year. So I might make make it a point to go ride the Ferris wheel this year. I went just for the Ferris wheel. I didn't

17:52think it was really unsafe. That being said, I'm kind of an adrenaline junkie to give you some contacts. I thought it was sort of pricey. I don't remember how much I paid, but it only gave me like two spins around. But I will say, obviously, very unique view of the city. I know we like being on bridges and it's fun to be high on a bridge. And if you still aren't feeling brave enough for the Ferris wheel, the Pittsburgh October Fest also has stone holding competitions, a kinder play area for kids and another dog race, weener dog races. So there's lots of fun to be had by everyone. I understand why they aren't doing a big dog race, but I want to see big dogs have their time to shine. Sophia, I think you got ripped off. This is $7 a ticket for a 10-minute ride. That's way more than two spins. Well, are they counting the 10 minutes as you slowly just in-shop as they're bloating everyone on? Because then yes, I probably got more than two spins, but the ride itself was about to go again, just to like decide whether this is worth it or not

18:57and report back. Might be better than I remember TVD. But another October Fest, this one is new to the city is Palestinian October Fest. This is going to be on October 3rd at Coleol's in Bloomfield. Their website says this is the first Palestinian October Fest in the United States, and it's a fundraiser to support Palestinian Christians. So the folks from Coleol's, I assume the owners like wrote a little bit about their experience when they went to Taipei October Fest in 2010. And Taipei Brewery is the only microbrewery in Palestine and the folks at Coleol's wrote a little bit about how they wanted to host an October Fest alongside Taipei celebration, but that it isn't happening there this year because of federal colonial violence. But they're still hosting the fundraiser here to support Taipei. Like I said, it is the last Palestinian Christian village there. They got beer from another spot in Palestine, but there's also going to be Syrian

19:58street food and drinks. There's live Irish music from this local band called Corn Beef and Curry. I think that's such a fun name. And if you can't make a talk to October Fest, go to Coleol's another time. I am absolutely obsessed with their Muhamara. It's a roasted red pepper dip. Everything there is so good. Co-signed. I love their food. So I was excited to see they've got this big banner out by the restaurant. They're on bomb boulevard. So this is a really cool addition to the offerings this year. Just a few more events that sounded sort of fun to us. Not as a serally fall themed, but like still kind of in the spirit of enjoying the season, the hopefully better weather, and just kind of seeing a little bit more of what there is in Pittsburgh. Yes. One that looked really cool to me is the Covered Bridge Festival. So I learned that Pennsylvania is the state with the most covered bridges. And numbers kind of vary depending on what website or source you're looking at. But the number is about 210. And Washington County has the second highest number in terms of like counties in Pennsylvania. They have 23 covered bridges.

21:03So the Covered Bridge Festival is in Washington and Green counties. And the festivals over nine of their bridges. The festival's been its 55th year. So it's been around for a minute. And you know, all sorts of usual festival stuff. Arts and crafts, demos, food vendors. They're historical and we enactments. I'm not sure what I'm excited to find out. But if you, you know, love the Covered Bridge aesthetic, Washington County also has a bunch of info on their website about how to make like a little self-guided tour. You can just drive through it all. And I think like, you know, this could be also a fun thing to pair with some leaf feet. Yeah. Which should be coming up. I mean, the peak peak time will probably be at least three to four weeks from now. But say tune to our newsletter because we love following along with that and sharing like as the fall color actually comes to bear. A few cultural options. I will throw out Britzberg is happening right now. So this is an annual festival like celebrating British culture in Pittsburgh. They have a ton of events throughout the week. History walks. There's an

22:07ale cask tapping. They of course go to River Hounds match during it. So check out their list. If that's something that you want to tap into, there's also the Irish festival that is happening this weekend down at the Kerry Blasphurnes. They always do it up real big. And then the Chinese cultural festival is happening on the 19th. So this is going to be at Melon Park free all ages, traditional and contemporary music and dance, martial arts, lion dancing, of course Chinese food. But just like a ton of things to have like a hands-on experience with some of these cultural activities. And I know we've mostly been talking about fall specific events. But since I did say I'm a big fan of spooky season. I want to tell the people what to look forward to. I wanted to throw in the Alan Town Night Market, which is happening on October 10th. I've gone to this a couple times and I absolutely love it. I've gone twice and I can't like to go back this year. The vendors are located all through different pockets of Alan Town's business district.

23:10And also in that big warehouse behind bottle rocket. It's not your typical craft and vendor show. All the vendors kind of have an alternative spooky witchy vibe, which is right for Alan Town, because it in itself is like pretty goth. Yes, they like that. They lean into that. Yes. And a lot of the shops that also have witchy and spooky vibes will be open as well. So they used to do this in the fall and summer. But moving forward, they're only going to be doing the fall market. So if you've been thinking about going, you should definitely go to the one in October because there won't be another one again until next time this year. And every time I've gone so far, I've gotten something Mothman related. The first time I got an art print and at the summer market in June, I got a Mothman Christmas ornament and a little Mothman that he sits on my bookshelf. So it's a great place to go if you're already starting to think about holiday gifting

24:12and you have someone in your life that's into spooky and witchy stuff, there will be all kinds of things to choose from. I have been trying to make it to this, but this past summer, it was just simply too hot to venture out. So I will absolutely be seeing you here at this one, Marla. I do think that's why they're actually moving it to being only in October because so many of the vendors are in that warehouse and there's no air conditioning and it was very hot in there in June. You can't wear your black hoodie in the middle of a heat wave, like it's just not fair. No, not at all. And I do want to say there's also going to be theme spooky music and entertainment across the market as well as food trucks. Onion made in is going to be there. Yes. Okay, I'm there. I was there anyway, but now I'm definitely there. We can go together. One last time, if you want to see any of this in print as it were, head over to our website, Pittsburgh dot citycast dot FM for a full list of all the things, farms, fall festivals, October fest, we have so many listed here way more than

25:15we talked about today. Plus we're starting to add to the list deep into October. We kind of stopped into the September of it all here, but keep checking back because there's so many like fun spooky season events that are starting to pop now, including haunted houses and things. So you'll hear from us more on this in the weeks to come. That is all for today here on citycast Pittsburgh. You can support us and get to know more about Marla and the Mothman, but we're coming to citycast Pittsburgh neighbor. All the details are at membership dot citycast dot FM slash Pittsburgh. We'll be back tomorrow with more from around the city. We'll talk to you soon. Like some of this stuff is a little bit of the darker scale. I wouldn't say this is dark. Well, I think I was also thinking of like there's like a Harry Potter night planned, which like I totally understand why they would want to capitalize on the Harry Potter if at all, but also like odd move

26:17at this point at knowing what we do now about its creator. Yeah, ever since jk Rowling is so transphobic, and vocal about it, I've been sort of mad about the Harry Potter. If you're that way, maybe