The crowds came out for Morning Glory Farm’s Pumpkin Festival on Saturday, a tribute to the harvest season for the Edgartown farm.
There were the traditional pie-eating contests, butternut squash toss, hayrides, and pumpkin trebuchet — which launches a pumpkin out of a catapult nearly 600 feet. Also new this year, the farm held a maize maze, which farm owner Simon Athearn said was a fun way to utilize a fallow crop.
“A good time was had by all,” Athearn said the 22nd time Morning Glory has hosted the festival. He said that it’s a big lift for the entire staff, but a good lift: “This is a moment where we are all working together.”
Athearn said they hauled in some sizable pumpkins on their five-acre patch this year, including some ranging from 300 to 400 pounds.
For those who missed the Pumpkin Festival, you still have a chance to celebrate the Vineyard’s agricultural bounty this Saturday, Oct. 25, at the Harvest Festival, hosted by the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society. It’s at the fairgrounds from 10 am to 2 pm, and free to enter. Plenty of those MoGlo pumpkins will have meandered over there for the pumpkin carving; hands-on offerings include a hay maze, crafts for kids, a pie-baking contest, and of course, music to dance to by the Flying Elbows.