Weber's Cider Mill Farm in Parkville has kicked off its fall harvest season, and the numbers behind the operation are staggering: the farm's 2025 projections called for sales of 180,000 apple cider donuts and 30,000 gallons of apple cider before that season wound down. Fall Harvest Days at the farm, located at 2526 Proctor Lane, will run from opening weekend through Nov. 8.
The season's centerpiece attraction, Pumpkinland, is back in the lineup this year, according to nottinghammd.com. The farm's fall roster also includes hay rides, a hillside slide, a family-friendly spooky walk, food trucks and fresh apple cider, with the 51st Annual Johnny Appleseed Festival having taken place Sept. 12 and 13. For 2026, Weber's is introducing weekday season passes and requiring visitors to register and buy tickets online in advance, though children under 2 get in free.
As reported by WMAR-2 News, the farm has set its hours this fall and continues to draw visitors who have been coming for generations. Farm manager Jack Meyers has said that some of those visitors live just 10 or 15 minutes away yet had never set foot on the farm before, per the station's report.
A Cider Operation Built on Decades-Old Equipment
Weber's operates what is described as Maryland's oldest continuously operating cider mill, according to Baltimore Fishbowl. The cider itself is pressed using a hydraulic press that Jake Webber Jr.'s grandfather purchased in the early 1940s, then pasteurized with a UV light system, the outlet notes. Meyers, who has spent eight years with Weber's, described the staffing swing that comes with the season: the farm might have about 10 employees in January, but that number balloons to around 120 heading into September, per the same account.
A Rough Spring Left Its Mark on Maryland Orchards
The heavy production numbers come against a backdrop of a difficult growing season across the state. A mid-April cold snap sent temperatures plunging into the low 20s after weeks of unusually warm weather, worsened by severe drought conditions, according to FOX 5 DC. In some Maryland counties, nearly 94% of apple crops, 99% of peach crops and 98% of barley crops were lost, the station reported, citing the Maryland Farm Service Agency. As a result, some Maryland farms shortened or canceled their pick-your-own-apple seasons entirely.
The frost followed an unusually warm spring that had caused crops across Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland and beyond to bloom weeks earlier than normal before the hard freeze hit in mid-April, according to FreshFarm. The nonprofit warned that local tree fruit may be scarce this year, with limited variety and higher prices, and cautioned that value-added products like cider, jams, jellies, fruit butters and dried apples could also be affected. The Maryland Department of Agriculture has described the frost as producing one of the most significant crop losses farmers across the state have seen in recent memory.
Other Orchards Report Thinner Pick-Your-Own Seasons
The frost's impact has shown up elsewhere in the region. Butler's Orchard in Germantown reported that overnight temperatures reaching 24 degrees during the late-spring freeze nearly wiped out some apple varieties, including Fuji apples, according to Maryland Matters. That has meant fewer apples available for picking and a shortened window for the pick-your-own season there, the outlet reported. Still, Butler's expected an abundant supply of pre-picked apples from regional farms through the fall, and said its apple cider donuts were unaffected by the frost, with pumpkins even benefiting from a good growing season thanks to rain.
Back in Parkville, Weber's fall lineup remains built around the fried, sugared staple that has defined the farm's autumn identity for years. Whether the season's broader apple shortages ripple through the region's other harvest traditions may become clearer as Fall Harvest Days continue toward their Nov. 8 close.
