Thank you!
Your support is sustaining the future of local news in our communities.
things to do

Spooky season and beyond: A roundup of local fall fun

Spooky season and beyond: A roundup of local fall fun

Millerton’s Willow Brook Farm is once again hosting its annual corn maze just north of the Village of Millerton.

Photo by Aly Morrissey

MILLERTON — The leaves are falling, Irving Farm is serving its seasonal Maple Pumpkin Chai and corn mazes are “cropping” up across the area. Fall fanatics can enjoy a variety of events and outings throughout eastern Dutchess County to celebrate the start of “Spooky Season.”

Here’s a sampling to get you started:

Oktoberfest Weekend at Back Bar Beer Garden

Oct. 3-5

2947 Church St, Pine Plains

Say “Ein Bier, bitte” at the upcoming Oktoberfest celebration at the Back Bar Beer Cabin in Pine Plains. Enjoy live music, German food specials and seasonal beers. Lederhosen not required.

“Spooky Month” at the NECC Farmer’s Market

Oct. 4, 11, 18, 25

Veteran’s Park, Millerton

Saturdays in October will be “spooky!” Visitors can enjoy fall-themed crafts — think glittery spider webs — and a tarot card reader. Halloween festivities will arrive early on Oct. 25, with costumes encouraged and kids invited to Trick-or-Treat around the vendors’ tables.

Soukup Farms Harvest Festival

Oct. 4–Nov. 1

271 Halls Corners Road,

Dover Plains

Typically known for their maple syrup, this fall you can expect hayrides to the pick-your-own pumpkin patch, corn maze, and family-friendly activities at this nearby, third-generation family farm. Festival hours are Saturdays 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sundays 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples’ Day 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Willow Brook Farm’s Corn Maze and Haunted Happenings

Oct. 12, Nov. 1

196 Old Post Road 4, Millerton

The legendary corn maze is open Thursdays through Mondays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. On Oct. 12, enjoy pumpkin tic-tac-toe, paint-your-own pumpkins, mocktails from Elite Mobile Bar and adoptable pups from Bleu’s K9 Rescue.

On Nov. 1, the farm will host a haunted corn maze, decked out with spooky decor. Visitors can also shop cider donuts and fresh pumpkins, gourds and other fall harvest during regular operating hours.

Haunted Fortress of Standford

11 Creamery Road, Stanford

The Peter Wing-designed haunted attraction draws thousands of visitors every year to delight in a wholesome “creep fest,” as described by volunteer and Haunted Fortress Committee member Greg Arent. The fortress will be welcoming visitors again this October on Fridays and Saturdays from 6:30 to 9 p.m. and on Sundays from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Sensory friendly shows will be offered on Sunday, Oct. 5, and Sunday, Oct. 19, from 2 to 4 p.m.

Haunted History Ghost Tours

Oct. 3, 10, 17, 24, 31

Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome

9 Norton Road, Red Hook, NY

Guided ghost tours are available on Fridays this month at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome. Visitors can hear chilling tales of lost pilots, tragic adventures and eerie happenings as they explore the grounds on a 70-minute walking tour. Tours run every Friday night with four time slots available — 6, 6:30, 7:15, and 7:45 p.m. Advanced tickets are required.

Evergreen Cemetery Lantern Tours

Oct. 17 and 19

19 Maple Street, Pine Plains

Presented by the Little Nine Partners Historical Society, this annual guided cemetery tour combines local history and storytelling with the backdrop of the town’s historic burying ground. In collaboration with Pine Plains Free Library and the Stissing Center, actors will bring to life the lives of a Revolutionary War militia man, a Black farmer from Virginia, a society matron and more.

Apple picking all season long

Rose Hill Farm

14 Rose Hill Farm, Red Hook, NY

With a taproom, cidery and food vendors, this orchard is a vibe with something for adults and kids alike. Pick plums, pumpkins and nine varieties
of apples.

Fishkill Farms

9 Fishkill Farm Road, Hopewell Junction, NY

Pick sustainably grown apples, ride a wagon through the fields, explore the corn maze, and enjoy live music and hard cider from the Treasury Cider Bar. Tickets are required.

Barton Orchards

63 Apple Tree Ln, Poughquag, NY

Experience live music, seasonal festivals, family-friendly activities and farm adventures across three venues: the Tap Room, Harvest Lounge and Sound Garden.

Aly Morrissey
things to do

Latest News

Millerton wine shop owner organizes charity wine tasting for local child

Millerton wine shop owner organizes charity wine tasting for local child

Millerton Wine & Spirits owner Chris Jeans has organized a charity wine tasting to benefit the family of Crew Slater, a Millerton native with congenital kidney disease. The wine tasting is set for Thursday, Oct. 29, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Pasture Kitchen on Route 44 just east of the Village of Millerton.

Illustration provided

MILLERTON — Two local business owners have joined forces to put on a charity wine tasting benefitting Millerton's Slater family.

Crew Slater, a 5-year-old Millerton native, needs a kidney transplant to survive congenital kidney disease. Millerton Wine & Spirits owner Chris Jeans and Pasture Kitchen founder Austin Cornell have organized a charity wine tasting at Pasture Kitchen on Route 44 next Thursday, Oct. 29, from 6 to 8 p.m.

Keep ReadingShow less
events

The Millerton News - October 22, 2026

The Millerton News - October 22, 2026

Download directly

Cornwall Historical Society celebrates Connecticut’s Black patriots

Cornwall Historical Society celebrates Connecticut’s Black patriots

On Saturday, Oct. 24, at the Cornwall Historical Society, author and genealogist John Mills will breathe new life into the stories of some of Connecticut’s more underappreciated patriots. The reason these heroes were forgotten? They were Black.

At a time when white colonists were fighting for their own liberty and political independence, many Black men who fought alongside them remained enslaved. Some risked their lives only to return to bondage. Though enslaved people were promised freedom from both sides of the Revolutionary War in exchange for their service, Great Britain, too, was still deeply dependent on slavery. For Black people in America, the war presented both extraordinary risks and uncertain paths to the freedom that white colonists were demanding for themselves.

Keep ReadingShow less
education
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

A sanctuary for second chances

A sanctuary for second chances

Stephanie Saetta runs Charlie Chicken Bones, a sanctuary in Salisbury.

Madi Long
You only get one or two of these soul connection dogs, so I do this in his honor.
— Stephanie Saetta

Stephanie Saetta has spent much of her life caring for others. A physician at White Plains Hospital, she has another calling at home in Salisbury — one that has four legs and a wagging tail. She runs Charlie Chicken Bone Sanctuary, a nonprofit dog rescue that brings dogs from overcrowded pounds and the streets of Texas to foster homes in northwestern Connecticut, where they can begin again.

The sanctuary is named for Charlie, the dog who taught her how special a bond between a person and rescue animal can be.

Keep ReadingShow less
our community

Big ideas come to Lenox for inaugural field festival

Big ideas come to Lenox for inaugural field festival

Hunter Runnette, founder and board chair of field, has spent years fostering arts and cultural programming in the Berkshires.

Provided

What do joy, gardening, artificial intelligence, the American experiment and the creative process have in common? Quite a lot, as it turns out, at least when some of the world’s most compelling thinkers get together to talk about them.

From Friday, Oct. 23, through Sunday, Oct. 25, Lenox, Massachusetts, will host the inaugural field festival, a three-day gathering of writers, artists, scholars and cultural figures at Shakespeare & Company. Billed as a festival of ideas, entertainment, learning and discovery, field brings together an impressive roster of voices to explore everything from the deeply personal to the profoundly political.

Keep ReadingShow less
community

The Pink House AM is serving up community

The Pink House AM is serving up community

Mare Rubin and Maggie Levine of the Pink House AM.

Madi Long

It all started with a yoga class. Mare Rubin was working on her second act after leaving the Upper West Side, where she’d raised a family and worked in corporate marketing. Newly empty nesters, she and her husband decided to move to the wilds of northwestern Connecticut, where they had spent 15 years as weekenders, to see what life in the woods had in store for them.

Rubin started teaching yoga classes at the Union in West Cornwall, a space designated by the town of Cornwall as a community hub with couches, Wi-Fi, occasional events and a growing yoga class schedule. She was adjusting well but missed one important thing about city life: a casual coffee shop.

Keep ReadingShow less
business
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.