Shelbyville – Gallrein Farms
Gallrein Farms outside of Shelbyville looks like any other family farm from the main road. A small white board that reads Pumpkins hangs under the farm logo sign off the roadside. Three hay bales hand-painted with jack-o-lantern faces sit beside the farm lane. Nothing really out of the ordinary this time of year.
Then you drive up the lane. And it takes only a minute to realize this is no ordinary place.
It’s an amusement park for people who love fall.
Hundreds of people mill about the space between a corn maze and a carnival slide. Dozens more pop in and out of greenhouses and a farm market straight ahead, wheelbarrows filled with pumpkins moving this way and that.
All I could think after we parked and walked into the festive autumn fray was “these are my people!”
The Corn Maze
A painted scarecrow with a hole where its face should be caught my eye as we walked toward the corn maze. It was the kind of setup where children can put their face and hands in cutouts for a photo souvenir. Of course, I had my face stuck inside the cutout in seconds.
No one seemed to notice. All the kids were jockeying for position at the entrance to the maze. A sign teased maze-goers would be Corn-victed! if they threw corn, which I’m sure is a story in itself. But folks behaved themselves as we made our way deep into the stalks.
There were a few kids who hid (while staying completely visible) off the beaten path. One girl who looked to be around age 12 panicked when she couldn’t find her way out. She wasn’t alone. Also panicking was my husband, who was apparently unprepared for any difficulty in finding the maze exit.
About five minutes in: “I am just going to walk through the corn stalks and get out of here.”
Five minutes later (when we found our way back to where we came in, but I went back into the maze to find the one true exit): “What?! No! … I feel like John Cusack in 1408. ‘I was out! I was out!’
An adult-size painted scarecrow with its hand in high-five position greeted us when we finally made it out. A sign up above it read “High-Five! We Got Out Alive At Gallrein Farms!”
I took my husband’s photo. He earned it.
A corn pit, carousel, and . . . apple cannons?
All that corn made me hanker for a corn tortilla, so we headed to a taco truck across the lane. That’s when I saw white lights peeking out of a barn. They were on top of a carousel — the old-timey kind with gold trim and mirrors and blue and pink horses with orange reins and crazy smiles. Little kids were loving the ride, and so were their parents. I loved it, too.
A big wavy slide outside the barn that accommodates kids and adults, or at least bigger kids, was also a hit. Nearby was a corn pit (like a ball pit, but with corn) and something called a “pillow jump” that looked like a super-safe trampoline. Hay bales stacked at least 10 deep were being climbed on by big and little kids alike.
Other well-loved attractions at Gallrein Farms in the fall are a haunted house, “apple cannons” that allow visitors to launch apples out into in a field, and a petting zoo.
Nothing, though, seems to top the hayride.
Hayride to the pumpkin patch
A slow roll behind a farm tractor, past soybeans and corn into a land of pumpkins (still on the vine!), is an unparalled experience in October. There’s just something about harvesting a pumpkin with your own hands that makes the moment a little sweeter. Gallrein Farms makes it possible.
There are sunflowers here, too. An entire field of them, bright and blooming and feeding bees into late October. They are a Gallrein staple. People come several months throughout the year to pick and buy them by huge bunches.
But pumpkins are the stars here in October. We were eager to pick our own, so we hitched a hayride to the patch with about 50 other pumpkin lovers.
Finding the right squash for your doorstep is serious business, so everyone took their time to make sure the job was done right. On the ride back, folks held their pumpkins close until we reached the scales. Heavy loads went into wheelbarrows and were weighed on a floor scale. The price? Only 49 cents a pound, making my good-size pumpkin a little over $4.
Next we stopped at the farm market to take in the scent of apple and spice coming from the café there. We left with a perfectly-perfect 75-cent pumpkin gourd, apple cider donuts, pumpkin donuts, and a cup each of fresh hot apple cider.
The drive back to the main road seemed a little longer than it had been on our way into the farm. We passed the hay bales painted like jack-o-lanterns, and soon the amusement park was out of sight. But it will never be out of mind.
Want to Go?
Gallrein Farms is located at 1029 Vigo Road in Shelbyville. Visitors must have a wristband for most seasonal activities on the farm. Only the hayride can be purchased separately at $3 per ticket. Check out the farm’s website and Facebook page for the latest admission prices and visitor information!
