For farmsList your patch
✓ 2026 dates confirmed on the farm's own site

Critz Farms

📍 3232 Rippleton Road, Cazenovia, NY 13035🗓 September 12 – October 31, 2026🏷 Pricing TBD

Open daily for seven weeks with a real corn maze, a working cider mill and 25-plus animal species — but the maze closes six days before the pumpkin field does, and the farm publishes no prices at all.

Critz Farms in Cazenovia, NY

What you get for the price

Included with admission

Gigantic Steam Engine Corn MazePick-your-own apples and pumpkinsWagon rides to orchards and pumpkin fieldsCider making demonstrationsFresh apple ciderCow train rideFarm animals (25+ species)PlaygroundsTap roomCafe and gift shop

The farm's hours page states an admission ticket is required depending on the season and directs visitors to buy in advance, but no dollar figures appear on any page read.

Our take

Critz Farms publishes something most farms do not: an activity-by-activity table of dates and hours. It is worth reading carefully, because the four activities do not all run on the same calendar, and the mismatches are the whole planning problem.

Pick-your-own apples and pumpkins run daily, 10am to 6pm, September 12 to October 31. The Gigantic Steam Engine Corn Maze and the wagon rides run daily on the same hours but end on October 25. Cider making is Saturdays and Sundays only. And the games run noon to 6pm on weekdays against 10am to 6pm on weekends.

Line those up and a clear answer falls out: a weekend before October 25 is the only date that gets you the whole farm. Everything else involves a trade you should make deliberately rather than discover at the gate.

The maze ends before the season does

This is normal in the north and worth understanding rather than resenting. Corn mazes are cut into a real crop, and once the crop is done and the weather turns, the maze comes down while the pumpkin field carries on. Critz is unusually clear about the dates; plenty of farms are not. If Halloween week is the only time you can go, you will still get pumpkins, wagonless as they may be, plus the animals, playgrounds and cafe — just not the thing the farm leads with.

The price question

The farm says a ticket is required and asks you to buy in advance, but shows no figures on any page we read. That is a real gap for anyone comparing options, and the advance-purchase instruction suggests there is an online rate worth having. Find the number in the booking flow before you plan the day around it.

Daily opening is the underrated feature

In a region where most comparable farms are Saturday-and-Sunday operations, seven-day opening across seven weeks is a genuine advantage. It means weather flexibility, it means a quieter visit is actually available, and it means a rained-off plan can move by a day instead of a week.

The weekday catch is the noon start on games, and the cider mill being shut. If your children are old enough to care about the maze and the animals rather than the games, a weekday morning is close to ideal: full pick-your-own hours, the maze open, and nobody else in the corn.

One seasonal note. The 6pm close is a long light evening in mid-September and full dark by the end of October. Cazenovia gets cold once the sun drops, and standing in a field waiting for a wagon is the coldest part of any farm visit. Dress for the last hour, not the first.

Planning your visit

Best time to go

Pick-your-own runs daily 10am to 6pm from September 12 to October 31, 2026. The corn maze and wagon rides run daily on the same hours but stop on October 25 — six days earlier. The cider mill only runs Saturdays and Sundays. So the ideal date depends entirely on what you came for: a weekend before October 25 is the only slot that gets you everything at once. Weekday games do not start until noon, so a 10am weekday arrival finds a quieter but partly shut farm.

How long to budget

Three to four hours on a weekend with the cider mill running. Two hours on a weekday, when the games open late and the mill is closed.

Crowds

Daily opening spreads the load in a way weekend-only farms cannot. Weekends are still the busy end, and they are also the only days the cider mill runs, which concentrates interest further.

Parking

Not published. Expect a Madison County farm field and soft ground after autumn rain.

What to bring

  • Layers — a 6pm close in mid-September is broad daylight and by late October it is dark and considerably colder
  • Closed shoes for the maze, the orchard rows and the pumpkin field
  • A card, and a willingness to find out the price at the point of purchase since none is published

How to spend less here

  • The farm directs visitors to buy admission in advance. That usually means an advance rate exists, so buy ahead rather than at the gate
  • A weekday visit avoids the weekend crowd, but note the trade — the cider mill is closed and the games do not start until noon
  • Pick-your-own is charged by what you pick, so a family that comes to look at animals and walk the maze can keep the day cheap

Who it suits

Good for

  • Families who want a daily-opening farm rather than a weekends-only one — a rare thing at this scale in central New York
  • Anyone who wants to watch cider actually being pressed, which is a weekend-only demonstration here
  • Animal-focused kids, with 25-plus species listed alongside the playgrounds and cow train
  • Adults, thanks to a tap room, cafe and gift shop on the same site

Skip it if

You are set on the corn maze and can only come in the final week of October — it shuts on the 25th while the rest of the farm runs to Halloween. Skip it too if you need to budget precisely; the farm states a ticket is required but publishes no dollar figures anywhere we read.

Common questions

How much does Critz Farms cost?

No prices appear on any page we read. The farm's hours page states an admission ticket is required depending on the season and asks visitors to buy in advance, but does not publish figures.

When does the Critz Farms corn maze close?

The corn maze and wagon rides run September 12 to October 25, 2026. Pick-your-own continues to October 31, so the last week of the season has pumpkins but no maze.

Is the cider mill open every day?

No. Cider making runs Saturdays and Sundays, 10am to 6pm. Pick-your-own, the maze and wagon rides run daily within their own date windows.

When is Critz Farms open in 2026?

September 12 – October 31, 2026. Daily for pick-your-own, corn maze and wagon rides; cider mill weekends only. Hours: Pick-your-own 10:00am-6:00pm daily Sept 12 - Oct 31; corn maze and wagon rides 10:00am-6:00pm daily Sept 12 - Oct 25; cider mill 10:00am-6:00pm Sat-Sun; games noon-6:00pm weekdays and 10:00am-6:00pm weekends.

How much does Critz Farms cost?

Admission pricing was not published when we last checked. The farm's hours page states an admission ticket is required depending on the season and directs visitors to buy in advance, but no dollar figures appear on any page read.

Where is Critz Farms?

3232 Rippleton Road, Cazenovia, NY 13035, in Madison County. It is one of 4 patches we track in Central New York.

How Critz Farms compares in Central New York

We track 4 patches in Central New York, 1 of which are free to walk into. The farm has not published a gate price, so it cannot be compared on cost — call before you budget.

Its season runs about 50 days against a regional average of 51, so it is broadly in line with the rest of the region.

What sets it apart locally: it has rides and play structures, which most Central New York patches on our list do not.

Other patches near Cazenovia

There are 6 other patches we track in Madison County. All Central New York patches →

Quick facts

SeasonSeptember 12 – October 31, 2026
Days openDaily for pick-your-own, corn maze and wagon rides; cider mill weekends only
HoursPick-your-own 10:00am-6:00pm daily Sept 12 - Oct 31; corn maze and wagon rides 10:00am-6:00pm daily Sept 12 - Oct 25; cider mill 10:00am-6:00pm Sat-Sun; games noon-6:00pm weekdays and 10:00am-6:00pm weekends
AdmissionNot published
CountyMadison County
RegionCentral New York

Sources

critzfarms.com

Checked August 2026.