If your idea of a pumpkin patch involves quietly wandering through a field, choosing one respectable orange pumpkin, and heading home before lunch, Bauman’s is about to dramatically complicate your plans.

Bauman’s Harvest Festival officially opens for the 2026 season today, Saturday, September 19, transforming the longtime family farm in Gervais into one of Oregon’s biggest fall playgrounds. We’re talking pumpkins, mazes, rides, farm animals, slides, obstacle courses, apple cider, cider donuts, and more than 30 activities spread across a festival that can very easily swallow an entire afternoon.

And honestly, that’s kind of the point.

Bauman’s isn’t really the place you visit when you simply need a pumpkin. It’s where you go when somebody in the family says, “Let’s go to a pumpkin patch,” and six hours later you’re carrying a pumpkin under one arm, powdered sugar is somehow on your jacket, the kids have ridden the same thing four times, and everyone is pretending they have room for another cider donut.

Bauman’s Harvest Festival 2026 At a Glance

The 2026 Harvest Festival runs from September 19 through October 31 at Bauman’s Farm & Garden, located at 12989 Howell Prairie Road NE in Gervais, Oregon. Festival hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, with the festival closed Mondays. Admission and ticket sales end at 4 p.m.

If you’re already planning your fall weekends, you can also compare Bauman’s with dozens of other farms in our 2026 guide to the best pumpkin patches in Oregon. For people coming from the Portland area, we’ve also put together a dedicated guide to the best pumpkin patches near Portland with prices, locations, dog policies, and the type of experience you’ll find at each farm.

Bauman’s Is Much More Than a Pumpkin Patch

The pumpkin patch is here, obviously. But calling Bauman’s a pumpkin patch is a little like calling Disneyland a place with a mouse.

The farm says its weekend Harvest Festival includes more than 30 activities, and unlike farms where every slide, train ride, or attraction seems to require another handful of tickets, Bauman’s uses a wristband model. Once you’ve paid for weekend festival admission, the included activities can be used repeatedly while you’re there.

That means families can bounce between mazes, playgrounds, farm animals, rides, obstacle courses and other attractions without conducting increasingly complicated mental arithmetic every time a kid announces they absolutely must do something again.

This is also one of those places where arriving at noon and assuming you’ll “just stay for an hour” is probably optimistic. Bauman’s recommends allowing at least around three hours for the Harvest Festival, and we’d take that advice seriously if you want to explore more than a small corner of the farm.

Come early. Wear shoes that are allowed to become farm shoes. Accept that fall has won.

Opening Weekend Is Actually Cheaper

There’s another good reason to go this weekend.

Bauman’s has designated September 19 and 20 as Family Rewards Weekend, which means opening-weekend admission is discounted from the normal Saturday and Sunday rate.

For this weekend only, admission is $25 for ages 3 through 25 and $15 for ages 26 through 99. Children 2 and younger are free when accompanied by a paying adult, and admission includes the full slate of festival activities.

After Family Rewards Weekend, regular Saturday and Sunday admission is $30 for ages 3 through 25 and $20 for ages 26 through 99. Friday, October 9 is also being operated as a weekend festival day with weekend pricing and activities.

That opening-weekend discount is especially helpful if you’re bringing several kids, because this is the sort of place where the price makes more sense when you plan to settle in and actually use the activities rather than treating it as a quick photo stop.

The Pumpkin Patch Itself Is Free

Here’s one detail that’s easy to miss.

You do not need to purchase Harvest Festival admission simply to visit Bauman’s pumpkin patch. Entry to the pumpkin patch is free throughout the season, although pumpkins and other produce you take home are purchased separately.

The paid wristband is for access to the Harvest Festival activity areas and, on weekends, the festival food venues.

That gives families a surprisingly flexible option. If you’re mainly interested in choosing pumpkins and wandering the farm, you don’t necessarily need to commit to full festival admission. If your kids spot the rides and immediately begin renegotiating the day’s itinerary, well, that’s between you and them.

Then There Are the Cider Donuts

There are Oregon fall traditions, and then there are foods that somehow become mandatory the moment the temperature dips below 70 degrees.

Bauman’s apple cider donuts belong firmly in the second category.

Weekend food options include the Donut Shack with fresh apple cider donuts and hot cider, along with the Harvest Kitchen, ice cream booth, food truck, caramel apples, sandwiches, tacos, kettle corn and other festival food. Bauman’s also produces its own fresh apple cider, and adults can find Bauman’s hard cider and local beer at the Tap House.

There’s even pumpkin soft serve because apparently regular ice cream looked at October and decided it needed a costume.

Some food options are available outside the paid festival area as well, including the year-round coffee shop and deli inside the Farm Store. The farm’s FAQ also notes that cider donuts are available through the bakery for visitors who aren’t purchasing festival admission.

Opening Day Has Live Entertainment, Too

Today’s opening-day schedule adds a couple more reasons to linger.

Bauman’s 2026 entertainment calendar lists The Lotus Studio at 11 a.m. followed by City Dance Theater at 1 p.m. on Saturday, September 19. Sunday continues opening weekend with the Tuesday String Band performing from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The entertainment schedule continues deeper into fall with live bands and special weekends, including Farm Days and the farm’s October giant pumpkin festivities.

In other words, Bauman’s isn’t simply opening a field and putting out a sign that says “pumpkins.” The operation is built more like a recurring fall festival, with individual weekends giving people reasons to come back throughout the season.

If you’re looking for even more things happening around the state this fall, keep an eye on our Oregon Events Guide, where we track festivals, seasonal celebrations, fairs, community events, and other reasons to get out of the house across Oregon.

Yes, You Can Bring the Dog

Bauman’s is also one of the more dog-friendly large pumpkin festivals we’re tracking this year.

Well-behaved, non-aggressive dogs are welcome in the pumpkin patch and Harvest Festival at no additional charge, provided they remain leashed and under control. Owners are responsible for cleaning up after their pets.

There are restrictions around food-service areas. Pets aren’t allowed inside the grocery, coffee shop or bakery portions of the Farm Store, with exceptions for qualifying service or assistance animals.

Considering how many pumpkin patches prohibit pets entirely, that makes Bauman’s worth remembering if your version of a family outing includes somebody with four legs and absolutely no interest in posing nicely beside a pumpkin.

A Little Oregon Farm History Behind the Festival

For all the rides and festival energy, Bauman’s has much deeper roots than the modern attraction might suggest.

The Bauman family traces the farm back to 1895, when the operation began on a 150-acre farm about a mile from the current retail location. Rick and Barb Bauman later opened a small roadside market in 1988, and according to the family, the Harvest Festival grew from something much simpler: their children bringing classmates to the farm to pick pumpkins and play in a small maze made from leftover straw.

More classmates came. Bigger mazes followed. The event kept growing.

Nearly four decades later, Bauman’s says the Harvest Festival now offers more than 30 activities and has become one of the largest fall events of its kind in the region. There’s something charming about knowing that beneath all the jumping pillows, apple cider and controlled autumn chaos is an idea that essentially began with some farm kids inviting their friends over.

One Parking Tip You Definitely Want Before You Go

Don’t automatically pull into the Farm Store parking lot.

Harvest Festival visitors should enter from Howell Prairie Road using the Truck Deliveries / festival entrance. Bauman’s says festival parking is free, and weekend traffic is directed into the larger festival parking area. The smaller Farm Store lot is reserved for customers specifically visiting the store.

That’s the kind of tiny logistical detail capable of making the difference between beginning your pumpkin day cheerfully and beginning it by circling a crowded parking lot while somebody in the back seat asks if you’re there yet.

Bauman’s also recommends arriving early. Considering the scale of the festival and the fact that admission sales end an hour before closing, we agree.

Oregon Pumpkin Season Is Officially Waking Up

Bauman’s opening also lands right as Oregon’s 2026 pumpkin season starts hitting full speed.

September is when the trickle of early corn mazes and farm events turns into full-blown fall-festival season, particularly around Portland and the Willamette Valley. By October, choosing a pumpkin patch can become less about finding one that’s open and more about figuring out whether you want giant mazes, animals, cider donuts, pumpkin cannons, haunted attractions, U-pick fields, or a farm quiet enough that the toddler might actually nap afterward.

Bauman’s isn’t alone in firing up for the season this weekend, either. Lee Farms, Plumper Pumpkin Patch, and Red Berry Barn are also opening today, while Frog Pond Farm got a one-day head start yesterday.

That’s why we built our complete Oregon pumpkin patch guide for 2026 around those differences instead of treating every farm as interchangeable.

Bauman’s occupies the big-festival end of that spectrum. This is the place for families who want enough happening to build an entire fall day around the farm, while still having the option to skip the paid attractions entirely and simply head for the pumpkins.

Just don’t blame us when “we’re only stopping for a pumpkin” ends with six hours of mazes, animals, rides and a suspicious number of cider donuts.

For current tickets, activity availability and any weather-related changes, check the official Bauman’s Harvest Festival ticket page before leaving home.