Fall came in this week, and every family we know has started asking the same question: where’s a good pumpkin patch that isn’t a parking lot with hay bales? This is our answer, built straight out of the Almanac’s pumpkin lane — the farms we’ve read about in their own words.
We haven’t been to all of them. Nobody could, and we won’t pretend otherwise. What we did do is read each farm’s own site, write down what it says it offers, and note whatever it has posted about this season. Where a farm hasn’t posted its hours, we say so plainly instead of guessing. Check the farm’s page or call before you load up the truck — patch season runs on weather, crop and crowds, and all three change by the week.
Mississippi is first because it’s home. After that the rings run roughly nearest to farthest from Oxford, so the top of the page is a Saturday and the bottom is a fall road trip. Every farm name goes to its full Almanac listing, with the address, the farm’s own links and everything else it grows.
Most of these open late September and are done by early November. Some charge admission at the gate and price the pumpkins separately; some are a field and a wagon. The “posted” line under each farm is only what that farm had published when we checked — the farm’s own page is the last word.
Home ground — Near Memphis · Near Jackson
Three patches in the state, and two of them are closer to us than Jackson is. Cedar Hill and Bolin Grove both sit in Hernando, in DeSoto County — the Almanac files them in the Memphis ring because that’s the city they serve, but they are Mississippi farms and they belong at the top of this page. Moseley Meadows is down I-55 in Madison County, north of Jackson.
Tennessee side — Near Memphis
The rest of the Memphis ring, all on the Tennessee side — from the Millington orchard ground to a 240-acre working farm out at Toone.
Alabama — Near Birmingham
Two Alabama patches, both with a corn maze and the hayride.
Arkansas — Near Little Rock
A tree farm that added a patch, and a berry farm that turns its ground over in October.
Tennessee — Near Nashville
One patch that opens this very weekend, and one farm that opens its gate only a few days a year.
Louisiana — Near New Orleans
Both in Tangipahoa Parish, north of the lake — one pick-your-own farm, one patch that runs into November.
Georgia — Near Atlanta
The deepest bench in the South on this list — six farms, from forty acres of pumpkin fields in Dawsonville to a five-acre corn maze in Rockmart.
Kentucky & Indiana — Near Louisville
One farm on each side of the Ohio River.
Missouri & Illinois — Near St. Louis
Three farms, one of them across the river in Illinois.
Texas — Near Dallas–Fort Worth
Three farms, two of them with 2026 patch dates already posted.
Texas — Near Houston
Five farms around Houston that open a patch in the fall.
Oklahoma — Near Oklahoma City
Two patches out on the east side of the city.
Missouri & Kansas — Near Kansas City
Six farms on both sides of the state line — orchards, a produce farm, and three with “pumpkin” right in the name.
Kansas — Near Wichita
An orchard and cidery, and a fall-only patch with a corn maze.
Iowa — Near Des Moines
Four farms — orchards, berry ground and a greenhouse — that turn to pumpkins in the fall.
Nebraska & Iowa — Near Omaha
Three Nebraska farms around Omaha.
Nothing fancy — the plain sense we’d want somebody to hand us before a long drive with small people.
Look at the farm’s page or Facebook the night before, not the week before. Rain closes fields, a good crop sells down, and weekend hours aren’t weekday hours. If a farm lists a phone number, that’s the one to trust.
Saturday afternoons at a popular patch are a line for the hayride and a line for the bathroom. Early is cooler, calmer, and the good pumpkins haven’t all been carried off yet. Littles are at their best before lunch anyway.
Closed-toe shoes that can get muddy, long pants for the corn maze, a layer for the wagon ride, and a change of clothes left in the truck. Bring water and snacks unless the farm says it sells them. A wagon or a sturdy tote saves your back on the walk out.
Some farms charge admission and price pumpkins separately, some only charge for what you carry out. Know which kind you’re going to, bring some cash in case the card reader is out in a field, and tell the kids the one-pumpkin-apiece rule in the car, not in the patch.
A lopsided pumpkin a four-year-old chose is worth more than the perfect one you did. Show them how to carry it from the bottom, not by the stem — a stem snapped off in the field means a pumpkin that won’t keep.
It’s somebody’s working farm and somebody’s home. Stay on the paths they set, keep hands where the petting-barn signs say, and ask before the dog comes along — plenty of farms say no pets. Wash hands after the animals.
Most of these places grow more than pumpkins — honey, eggs, apples, a jar of something. It’s a good way to say thank you, and it’s the part of the day that keeps a family farm open for next year.
Answered off this page’s own list — nothing here that isn’t above.
The Almanac lists three right now. Cedar Hill Farm and Bolin Grove Farms are both in Hernando, in DeSoto County, and both grow pumpkins in the fall on the same ground as their summer berries. Moseley Meadows in Madison runs a fall pumpkin patch with a petting barn, hay rides, farm games, a corn pit and pig races. None of the three had published pumpkin-season hours when we checked, so look at their pages first.
Most of the farms here open in late September and close by early November. A few posted exact 2026 dates: Walden Pumpkin Farm in Smyrna, Tennessee, September 26 to October 31; Parkhurst Pumpkin Patch in Arcadia, Oklahoma, September 17 to November 8; Blasé Family Farm in Rockwall, Texas, September 19 to November 1; and Elves Christmas Tree Farm and Pumpkin Patch in Denison, Texas, opens October 3.
Not one we’ve listed yet. The closest in the Almanac are the two Hernando farms, up in DeSoto County, and then the Memphis ring across the state line. If you run a patch in Lafayette County or anywhere nearby, we’d like to list you, free.
Find your city ring in the list above — Memphis, Jackson, Birmingham, Little Rock, Nashville, New Orleans, Atlanta, Louisville, St. Louis, Dallas–Fort Worth, Houston, Oklahoma City, Kansas City, Wichita, Des Moines or Omaha — and each farm’s listing has its town, address where the farm publishes one, and its own website and social links for this week’s hours.
Some do and some don’t. Among the farms here, Cagle’s Farm in Holly Springs, Georgia, lists admission for ages three and up with pumpkins priced separately; Walters’ Pumpkin Patch in Burns, Kansas, and Bloom Farm in Avoca, Nebraska, charge admission during the season; Meadowlark Farm in Rose Hill, Kansas, charges a small per-person entry fee. Prices change, so check the farm’s page for this year’s.
Every farm on this page is also in the pumpkin lane and in its own city ring, alongside the rest of what that country grows. Closer to home, the Oxford Edition keeps the farms, markets and orchards around Lafayette County. And if your fall runs more to tree stands than hayrides, the Field Guide has this year’s Mississippi deer season, plainly.
Mississippi has three patches on this page and it ought to have thirty. If you open a field to the public this fall — a wagon and a hand-lettered sign counts — in Mississippi or any state we cover, we’d like to put you on it. Free listing, your links, your words, gone the day you ask.