September 17 through October 31, 2009

Visitors will come from near and far to experience Fall Harvest Days at Amish Acres mid-September through October 31st. Fall is one of the most beautiful seasons in Indiana with its cool, comfortable days and crisp October evenings. Amish Acres Historic Farm and Heritage Resort will be decorated for the season with corn shocks, pumpkins and scarecrows galore! Visitors will enjoy the Harvest Market featuring crisp fall apples and of course pumpkins, along with gourds, squash, bittersweet, and Indian corn.

The Amish Acres courtyard will host demonstrations unique to the season. The aroma of apples fill the air as demonstrations show how apples are boiled in a large iron kettle over an open fire and cider is pressed in the Kuhns Cider Crist Mill. The eight unique shops in the courtyard will feature fall favorites, among them are homemade caramel apples, pumpkin fudge and ice cream in The Log Cabin Fudgery and Soda Fountain.

A leisurely farm wagon ride travels down the gravel lanes, through the woods and out to the pumpkin patch where friendly scarecrows stand guard over rows and rows of bright orange pumpkins. Kids can choose a pumpkin to take home and enjoy roasting marshmallows over an open camp fire. So much fun, it’s scary! Once again, scarecrows will be “budding up all over” during the 3rd annual Scarecrow Contest. Anyone and everyone are encouraged to enter their own scarecrow creation and compete for $4,000 in prizes.

A guided walking tour of the 1874 Stahly-Nissley-Kuhns farmstead (the only Amish farm listed in the National Register of Historic Places) tracing the history of the pioneering Amish families of northern Indiana. Learn the whys and ways of the Amish and marvel at the ingenious ways of the family farm of the last century. Two documentary films, Genesis and Exodus of the Amish, lead you from the Reformation through migration to America and coping with the modern world. The Bonnets and Britches film leads children down the same path at a different pace.

Following a nostalgic and education visit to the farm, guests will sit down to Threshers Dinner in the old barn restaurant around oil cloth covered tables at antiques chairs. The traditional menu hasn’t changed for over three decades and begins with an iron kettle of steaming ham and bean soup, followed by hearth bread, apple butter, and last of the garden relish. Platters of turkey, chicken, roast beef, and cider baked ham fill the table with mashed potatoes, beef noodles, sage stuffing, giblet gravy, and green beans. Prairie dressed waitresses return with tins of pies, cobbler, and pudding.

Amish Acres Historic Farm & Heritage Resort is easy to get to, but hard to leave on U.S. 6 in Nappanee, Indiana. For additional information call 800-800-4942 ext 242.