Ivy Hill Farm in Smithsburg is throwing open its gates this weekend for a two-day fall festival marking 50 years of welcoming the community to the family farm, with free admission, pumpkin picking, hayrides and homemade apple butter on the menu. The celebration lands at a farm that has been working this stretch of Washington County land since 1850, long before pumpkin patches became a fall ritual for suburban families across the region.
A Half-Century Tradition Rooted in Family
The festival will run at Ivy Hill Farm's address at 13840 Smithsburg Pike, with free admission for visitors, according to localnews1.org. The event is meant to celebrate 50 years of the farm welcoming the community, the outlet reports, and this year's milestone builds on a tradition that traces back generations. The Washington County government has noted that the Martin family has operated in the Smithsburg community since 1850, a lineage that eventually led to Ivy Hill being named the county's 2021-2022 Farm of the Year.
Festival hours have been reported differently across accounts. Localnews1.org lists the schedule as 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, while DC News Now reported Saturday hours of 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Sunday hours of 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Visitors planning a trip may want to confirm the exact timing directly with the farm before heading out.
Cider, Pies and a Pumpkin Patch
The weekend's offerings lean heavily on Ivy Hill's longtime specialties. The event will feature freshly pressed sweet apple cider, homemade apple butter demonstrations and a selection of whole and sliced homemade pies served with ice cream, per the same account from localnews1.org. Visitors can also pick pumpkins in the farm's pumpkin patch, take hayrides and meet farm animals, the report adds.
Food trucks, local artisan vendors, live music and a Kids Zone are planned throughout the festival, according to the outlet's coverage. Shoppers will also find the Kuhn Family Kettle Cooked Apple Butter for sale alongside seasonal mums, gourds, jellies, jams and fall decorations.
Generations of Apple Growers Behind the Gates
Ivy Hill's cider-making tradition dates to 1975, when the Martin family began pressing fresh cider on the property, and the farm is today run by sixth-generation apple growers John Steven Martin and his wife, Karen, according to Herald-Mail Media. The farm expanded into the retail market business in the early 1970s before buying its first commercial cider press in 1975, the Herald-Mail has reported separately, and the Martin family has continued expanding the festival and adding products in recent years.
Reports differ on the farm's exact footprint. Lancaster Farming has described Ivy Hill as a 57-acre operation with 42 acres devoted to fruit production, while Herald-Mail Media reported in 2021 that the farm then included 125 acres. Lancaster Farming also traces the family's roots even further, noting that the Martins have worked the land across at least eight generations, with sons Justin and Tim representing the seventh generation and an eighth generation of grandchildren already learning the ropes.
From Mule-Drawn Wagons to Modern Hayrides
The farm's signature hayride has evolved considerably over the decades. Originally, the family used mules borrowed from a neighbor to pull their hayrides, but today Ivy Hill relies on tractors and larger wagons, according to Lancaster Farming's account of the operation. The outlet also noted that the festival has historically been held on the second weekend of October, featuring fall staples like pumpkins, apples and cider — a pattern that lines up with this year's October 10-11 dates.
The farm's direct-to-consumer model has proven resilient in recent years. University of Maryland Extension educator Jeff Semler told Herald-Mail Media that anyone selling directly to consumers had good years during the pandemic, a trend that helped push Ivy Hill toward its county Farm of the Year recognition. Past scheduling for the festival offers a rough template for what families can expect this weekend: in 2022, Ivy Hill Farm's own event listing showed the festival running Saturday, October 8, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, October 9, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
