What to do in Southern Oregon

View Original

Pheasant Fields Farm - Our Fall Family Tradition

Every fall my family plans one pumpkin patch trip together; when I say family, I am talking about my whole family, which includes my parents, and my sister's and brother's families.  Pheasant Fields Farm often ends up being our destination because it is so wide open  and big enough to handle all of our crazy kids.  At the beginning of fall,  Ilias starts asking to go to Pheasant Fields Farm because he loves the huge corn maze so of course he is very happy!

First thing, we always do is to get our annual picture of our parents with all of the grandkids.  Of course, to get this task done it is nothing short of a miracle, with four boys and two girls all under the age of 10.  Alas, we eventually get them all to look at the camera at the same time so that we can head on to the fun activities!

After our pictures taking is done, we usually head over to the corn maze.  Our four boys like to take off by themselves to see how fast they can solve it. It is always a pretty big maze and they offer an aerial shot of the maze, but we always try get out without using the map.  It takes us a while to get through, sometimes as long as an hour with the boys doubling back to taunt us along the way. :)

WOur next activity was the hayride.  It is always a crowd favorite.  It is a fun little trip around their whole property while Farmer Ric, the owner,  tells us about the crops that they grow and some of the animals that share the property with them.  We didn't realize that there were so many varieties of pumpkins let alone that Pheasant Fields grows 50 different types.  

Next on the agenda was Pear Shooting.  Now this was really fun!  The boys picked two pears, pulled the stems off, then they got to use a huge slingshot to shoot at different targets.  They had some really cool prizes to win but our boys only won a piece of candy since they didn't hit anything.  Nonetheless they enjoyed it!

From there we checked out their pumpkin carver's creations.  It was so fun to watch their skill as they carved an awesome, scary face out of a pumpkin.  They were also roasting pumpkin seeds at the same stand.  If you like roasted pumpkin seeds, Jeri, Farmer Ric's wife suggested using the kakai pumpkin.  It is an orange and green, almost striped pumpkin.  They are really popular so you are going to have to really keep an eye out for them in the patch, or just go to their Country Store where you can not only purchase the heirloom pumpkins, but you can get beautiful hand made aprons, local products and homemade caramel apples.  They even had a coffee stand and they were grilling up burgers and hot dogs if you  for purchase if you are hungry.  While you were enjoying your snack you could sit under a beautiful black walnut tree, that is over 50 years old.

The kids wanted to finish off their day by playing in the bounce house.  On the way there we got distracted by the chickens and bunnies, but then moved on to the kiddie section.  For the bounce house we could either pay two tickets or get a bracelet that was good for as many times as they wanted.  We somehow ended up with a lot of leftover tickets so the kids went through a few times.

The kids of course, with their undending energy, decided  to climb around on the tractor they have on the property and to swing in the tire swings.

Pheasant Fields Farm has added a brand new COW TRAIN last year that fits up to 10 passengers and adds to the fall fun.

If you want to go Pheasant Fields Farm Harvest Festival they are located at : 1865 Camp Baker Rd, Medford, 97501 map and they will be open every Saturday & Sunday, September 23 and October 29, 2022, 10am - 5pm