The Celebrate Rural Montgomery Fall Festival, originally scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 8, has been rescheduled because of rain for Sunday, Oct. 30 from 2 to 5:30 p.m.
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Fall on the Farm
At Clark's Elioak Farm in Ellicott City, Janelle Chapham, 4, has the goats eating out of her hands. Besides animals, the farm features pieces from the old Enchanted Forest theme park.
(Mark Finkenstaedt)
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"It's kind of basic stuff, but it's things a lot of kids have never had the opportunity to do," Butler says of such festival staples as a straw-filled hayloft, hayrides, mazes and barnyard animals, which the family borrows from neighboring farms. This year, the Butlers added three long, plastic slides set between hay bales atop a huge mound of dirt.
The festival's silver anniversary coincides with the 25th anniversary of Montgomery County's Agricultural Reserve, 93,000 acres of farmland and rural open space in the county's northwestern section, preserved through a nationally acclaimed land-use plan. The milestone will be honored Saturday during a Celebrate Rural Montgomery Fall Festival at Butler's, one of the farms in the reserve.
BUTLER'S ORCHARD -- 22200 Davis Mill Rd., Germantown. 301-972-3299.http:/
The Scarecrows' Last Stand
Cars don't travel too fast along Gallahan Road in Clinton during October. Drivers brake and crane their necks when they catch sight of Cherry Hill Farm & Orchard's unusual pumpkin patch and a scene that could be titled "Day of the Living Scarecrows -- in Technicolor!"
There they are, lined up or scattered around and about the fields: hundreds of one-of-a-kind figures, many looking as if they'll bolt right toward startled passersby. There's that green-faced character from "The Mask," and over there, a pig couple, the sow clad in a pink dress and purple head wrap.
Cherry Hill's scarecrow tradition started about 40 years ago, when Pat Gallahan set up a display of 25 in her mother-in-law's yard. Every fall, the number grew. To get a good look at the straw people, now numbering about 500, visitors take hayrides.
Each year features a mixture of new scenes -- such as a "Shrek" tableau, complete with onion carriage -- and old favorites, such as a wedding party, gorillas doing the limbo and hillbillies.
When they're not exploring the farm's outdoor activities, folks head for the market's homemade apple cider doughnuts and soft-serve pumpkin- or apple-pie-flavored ice cream. This fall, the tastes prove bittersweet. Worried looks cross customers' faces as they approach Pat and say, "I've heard a rumor." She confirms their fears: Having sold most of the land for development, the Gallahans soon will close the farm that has been in husband Alton Gallahan's family since shortly after the Civil War.
"I never meant this to be an institution -- we're just trying to make a living," Alton says. At age 72, tired of farming's hard physical work and mental strain, he's ready to retire, relocate and, Pat says, "travel while we can still walk!"
But what will become of all those scarecrows? Some likely will be sold at an auction next spring, and Alton says another farmer has expressed interest in buying some. Pat plans to take her favorites to the couple's new home. "I'm putting scarecrows up -- every month a different one!" she says.
CHERRY HILL FARM & ORCHARD -- 12300 Gallahan Rd., Clinton, near Fort Washington. 301-292-1928 or 301-292-4642.http:/
Fairy Tales and Farm Animals
Long ago, but not so far away, wide-eyed youngsters whiled away a carefree hour at a spot right out of a storybook: the Enchanted Forest, a whimsical theme park dotted with colorful, larger-than-life-size scenes featuring characters such as Mother Goose and the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe.
