Spirited Fun

Halloween is coming, and that means trick or treaters, too much candy and pumpkins--lots of pumpkins.

We’ll get to our local pumpkin purveyors in a moment, but first some history:

The Halloween tradition began around 800 B.C. as a Celtic festival called Samhain, which recognized the end of summer and the recently completed harvest.

Samhain was a fire festival, and sacred bonfires were ignited on hilltops. To light a fire later in the family hearth, embers were carried home in a hollowed-out turnip or gourd. But, afraid of the dark, the Celts dressed in costumes and carved scary faces in the gourds to ward off evil spirits on the long walk home.

For Christians, Halloween began as All Saints’ Day, created by Pope Boniface IV in the seventh century to honor all the saints that didn’t already have a day of their own. It was originally celebrated on May 13, but Pope Gregory moved it to Nov. 1, 835, some say to dissuade Christians from celebrating Samhain. At that time, Halloween was called All Hallows Eve, the evening before All Saints’ Day. Over the years, the name was shortened to Halloween.

The term jack-o’-lantern came from an Irish folk tale of the 18th century. Jack was a wily Irishman who tricked the devil into climbing an apple tree, then carved a cross in the trunk, thus trapping the Prince of Darkness in the branches.

When Jack died many years later, he was refused access to heaven because of his meanness, and the devil, still an unhappy camper, refused him entry to hell as well. Homeless, Jack was forced to wander the earth endlessly, but the devil took pity on him and gave him a piece of burning coal to light his path. Jack put it in a hollowed-out turnip he had been eating.

From a turnip or a gourd to a pumpkin is but a small step, and several local farmers couldn’t be happier, making a big deal and a good time out of that annual vine.

The Tierra Rejada Family Farm, just about the last of its kind in Moorpark, will kick off the Halloween season with its annual Fall Farm Festival this weekend. There will be an arts-and-crafts fair beginning at 10 a.m. both days, and two teams of Clydesdale horses will pull kids on hayrides through the pumpkin patch and sunflower trail. There will also be games, a petting zoo and face-painting. A contest involving guessing the weight of a giant pumpkin will be ongoing all month.

The Tierra Rejada farm is still the place to pick your supper, but now it has plenty of pumpkins in addition to the fruits and veggies. There will be antique farm equipment demonstrations the final two weekends of the month, and old tractors are always on display. No one should starve to death, as the Lions Club will be selling burgers and roasted corn. There will be live music beginning at 11 a.m. each weekend day this month, with country and bluegrass the soundtrack of choice. The lineup for the month looks like this: Tamarack on Saturday and Oct. 28, Caught Red-Handed on Sunday and Oct. 29, and the Iron Mountain Boys on Oct. 14-15 and 21-22.

Meanwhile, at the 27-plus-acre Faulkner Farm in Santa Paula, the 26th annual Pumpkin Patch & Harvest Festival will be ongoing this month from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily.

The stars of the show are readily apparent from the parking lot. There are three fields full of pumpkins, grouped by size--small, medium and are you kidding me? All were grown right there in Santa Paula.

Plenty of activities are available for kids, including a large forest of healthy sunflowers, some up to 8 feet tall, with a little built-in maze. There will also be a petting zoo of baby farm animals, plus hayrides, haystacks to climb and plenty of food. Restored antique tractors, quilting demonstrations and a country craft fair are just a few of the attractions.

Talk about happy coincidences--the Harvest Moon Fest is set for Friday the 13th, when children can pick pumpkins under the harvest moon, play Halloween games such as Musical Pumpkins, bob for apples and break in their costumes.

There is also a low-budget stage for band performances, with six rows of hay bales providing adequate, if temporary, seating. Music is scheduled every weekend in October, beginning at noon daily. The lineup: Les Classeeks and Isbell Condor Chorus on Saturday, Steve Hill & Friends on Sunday, the Old Country Trio Plus One on Oct. 14-15, Acadiana on Oct. 21-22 and the Iron Mountain Boys on Oct. 28-29.

In Ventura, McGrath Farm makes up most of the inner-city greenbelt, stretching from Highway 101 to the Santa Clara River. With a permanent listing in the phone book, the McGrath Street Pumpkin Patch is making its annual return.

On weekday mornings, lots of school field trips are scheduled so kids can see where food actually comes from. Beth McGrath will give educational talks about the crops grown on her family farm.

“We’ll have hayrides on the weekends and pony rides and stuff like that, which is mostly geared for elementary-school children,” McGrath said. “Pumpkins go from 50 cents to maybe $60 for the huge, giant ones that people put in front of their mansions down in L.A.”

The annual highlight at McGrath’s is the Pumpkin Moon Fair set for Oct. 21-22, which will feature live music from local folk rocker J. Peter Boles, among others.

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DETAILS

Tierra Rejada Farms, 3370 Moorpark Road, Moorpark, 529-3690.

Faulkner Farm, 14292 W. Telegraph Road, Santa Paula, 525-2226.

McGrath Street Pumpkin Patch, 5156 McGrath St., Ventura, 658-9972.