A no-gate-charge Elkhart County market orchard whose own site describes the hayrides out to the pumpkin patch as complimentary - probably the cheapest real fall stop near Goshen, with a Sunday question worth a phone call.
The orchard publishes no admission price. Its fall hayrides to the pumpkin patch are described on its own Activities page as complimentary rides that carry visitors out to the field; pumpkins and produce are paid for by the item or weight.
Free to walk in. Your spend here is whatever you choose — pumpkins, food, and any paid activities. That makes it a low-risk stop if you are not sure how long the kids will last.
Kercher’s is the kind of farm that has largely been priced out of existence elsewhere: a working market orchard with a cider mill, a pumpkin field and a hay wagon, and no turnstile.
Northern Indiana’s attraction farms have converged on a $13 to $16 per-person gate, which puts a family of four at $50 to $65 before a single pumpkin. Here the gate is nothing and, according to the farm’s own Activities page, the hayride out to the pumpkin patch is complimentary too. That is genuinely unusual. At most farms the wagon ride is either the paid attraction or the justification for the ticket.
So the honest budget for a family of four is: whatever the pumpkins weigh, a bag of apples, and a jug of cider. Call it $25 to $40 for a good haul. There is no scenario where this trip costs $100 unless you set out to spend it in the market.
The trade-off is equally honest. There are no mazes, no slides, no jump pads and no pig races. If your children need three hours of engineered entertainment, this will not deliver it and you should pay for a farm that will.
We want to be clear about a conflict in the record rather than paper over it. The farm’s own homepage posts market hours as Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm, Saturday 9am to 3pm, closed Sunday. Its own Activities page lists hayrides running Saturdays and Sunday afternoons. A regional directory lists a third set of extended September-to-October hours that includes Sunday afternoons and disagrees with both.
Any of these could be right. It is entirely plausible that the market keeps different hours from the fall hayride operation, which is a normal arrangement. But it is not something to gamble a drive on. Phone 574-533-6311 and ask directly whether you can come on a Sunday, and if so, when.
The same call solves the other gap: the dated hayride weekends on the farm’s site belong to the 2025 calendar, and no 2026 fall dates had been posted. September 20 was a Saturday in 2025, not 2026, which is how we know the page has not been refreshed.
The one thing with a firm window is cider: roughly September 15 through December 31, pressed at the farm’s own mill. That is a long season, and it means a cider run is worth making even in November, well after the pumpkins have gone. In this part of Indiana the cider mill is not a side stall - it is the reason a lot of people drive out at all, and a jug from a mill that presses its own is a different product from a supermarket bottle.
Guided apple and pumpkin tours run weekdays and are quoted by email rather than published. That is worth knowing for teachers and playgroup organisers, and it is also worth knowing for everyone else: weekday mornings in season may have organised groups on site.
Elkhart County sits far enough north that autumn arrives earlier and harder than it does around Indianapolis. Frost comes sooner, the pumpkin field ends sooner, and an open hay wagon in mid-October is a genuinely cold ride rather than a brisk one. Dress for a wagon, not a car park - and treat late October as the end of the outdoor season rather than the middle of it.
The orchard had not posted 2026 fall dates when we checked in August 2026, so we cannot confirm a hayride calendar. What is published is the farm market schedule: Monday to Friday 9am-5pm, Saturday 9am-3pm, closed Sunday. Cider from the farm's own mill is available from around September 15 through the end of December. Its hayrides have historically run weekend afternoons through late September and October. Saturday morning is the safest bet - it is the one day the market and the weekend activity overlap on the farm's own posted hours - but call 574-533-6311 to confirm your date.
An hour to ninety minutes. This is a market orchard with a hayride to the patch, not a festival with an itinerary, and it does not need half a day.
A free market orchard does not draw the crowds a ticketed festival farm does, and the market's weekday hours mean a Tuesday morning here is likely to be quiet. October Saturdays, when the hayrides run and everybody in Elkhart County wants cider, are the busy end.
Not published. A County Road 38 orchard will have gravel or grass parking; northern Indiana Octobers are wet, so expect soft ground after rain.
You want rides, mazes and a bundled day out. This is an orchard and a market with a hayride, and nothing on the record suggests otherwise. Skip a Sunday trip too unless you have phoned first - the farm's own posted hours say closed Sunday.
No. The orchard publishes no admission price, and its own Activities page describes the fall hayrides that carry visitors out to the pumpkin patch as complimentary. You pay for pumpkins, apples, cider and produce by item or weight.
The farm's own posted market hours say closed Sunday - Monday to Friday 9am-5pm and Saturday 9am-3pm. A third-party directory lists different extended September-October hours including a Sunday afternoon opening, and its hayrides have historically run Sunday afternoons. The two sources conflict, so phone 574-533-6311 before a Sunday trip.
Not published as of August 2026. The dated weekends on the farm's Activities page belong to the 2025 calendar. Call ahead rather than planning around them.
The farm's homepage gives a cider availability window of September 15 through December 31, pressed at its own mill.
2026 dates had not been published when we last checked. In past seasons it has run: Farm market Monday-Saturday; fall hayrides on September and October weekends (2025 pattern; 2026 dates not yet posted). Check with the farm before driving out.
Admission is free. The orchard publishes no admission price. Its fall hayrides to the pumpkin patch are described on its own Activities page as complimentary rides that carry visitors out to the field; pumpkins and produce are paid for by the item or weight.
19498 County Road 38, Goshen, IN 46526, in Elkhart County. It is one of 3 patches we track in Northern Indiana.
We track 3 patches in Northern Indiana, 1 of which are free to walk into. Entry here costs nothing, which puts it in the minority even in a region with several free options.
What sets it apart locally: it has u-pick fields, hayrides, a market, bakery or taproom, which most Northern Indiana patches on our list do not.
One caveat worth repeating: this farm had not published its 2026 dates when we last checked, while 2 of the 3 patches we track in Northern Indiana had. Treat any date you see elsewhere as last year's until the farm confirms it.
kerchersorchard.com · pumpkinpatchesandmore.org
Checked August 2026.