Pumpkin Festival

Well we can now know that fall has arrived, The Hartsburg Pumpkin Festival has come and gone.  I had the good  fortune to attend this year and was it ever crowded.  I would estimate the crowd at around 20,000 people on Saturday the 9th of October.  I'm sure that it was just as crowded on Sunday also.

Hartsburg Missouri, population 182, is located in the Missouri River bottoms about twenty miles upriver from Jefferson City and on Missouri's longest park, The KATY Trail Park.  Each year in October, for two days, that population explodes to over 50,000 with the onset of the pumpkin harvest.  The soil here is very fertile and grows some big pumpkins.  Corn and Soybeans are also grown here in this valley.

My wife and I arrived about 10:00 AM on a sunny day with the temps supposed to be in the lower 80s. The first area that had been set aside for parking was full and the traffic was lined back about 3/4 mile outside town.  We were thirty minutes in line to get through town to another parking lot. (we were lucky later in day people were in line an hour to get parked.) We parked about a 1/4 mile from the downtown are and started walking and looking at vendor booths, there was a lot, about 180 I think.  There were sellers of funnel cakes, corn on the cob, kettle corn (popcorn), jellies, jams, Apple butter and a bunch of other things that I don't have room to list here.

They had rides for the children and the children at heart,  there was music and apple butter making demos.  A parade and even a King for a day crowning.  There was woodworking crafts demos, pen making booths, quilts for sale.

I really enjoyed this and will try to go back next year.  If you get to you should go next year, or at least drop by their web site here.

Another place along the KATY Trail that has a lot going on during October is Herman MO, an old German river town that has several vineyard and wineries.