A free-to-enter Winchester orchard and market where the bakery and the fruit are the point — but no 2026 festival dates or admission prices are published, and Sunday's noon-to-five window is tight.
No general admission price is published on the orchard's site. Listed pick-your-own prices are cut-your-own flowers at $7.99 a jar and blackberries at $3.99 a pint or $5.99 a quart. Apple and pumpkin prices are not posted online.
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.
The most honest framing of this place is that it is a farm market with an orchard and a very good playground attached, not a fall festival with a market on the side. Getting that right before you drive out to Cedar Creek Grade saves disappointment, because the two kinds of destination reward completely different expectations.
There is no published gate price. That is the standout feature and it is worth more than it looks. A ticketed farm with a $15 head charge punishes a visit that goes wrong — a toddler who melts down at the twenty-minute mark, a rain shower, a nap that ran long. Here the downside of a short visit is nothing at all. You park, you use the playground, you look at the fruit, you buy a bag of doughnuts, you leave. For families with children too young to be reliable, that risk profile is genuinely valuable and it is the reason to pick a place like this over a $60 gate elsewhere.
The corollary is that your spending is unbounded and unpredictable. Apple and pumpkin prices are not posted online. Flowers are $7.99 a jar and blackberries $3.99 a pint or $5.99 a quart, which are the only figures we could confirm. A family that comes for the bakery and leaves with a box of pastries, a peck of apples and a pumpkin has spent real money without ever seeing a price list in advance.
Worth setting expectations on. The orchard says apples are offered from large bins placed out in the orchard on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from September. That is not the same as wandering the rows filling your own bag from the trees, and children who have been promised tree-picking may notice. It is faster, it is easier on the trees, and it works better on a busy weekend — but know which one you are getting.
Weekday hours run 9:00am to 6:00pm. Saturday closes at 5:00pm. Sunday does not open until noon and still closes at 5:00pm. That is a five-hour Sunday, and it collides with exactly the time most families would drive out from the Winchester area or from further east. If Sunday is your only option, arrive at noon and plan around it; a 3:30pm Sunday arrival is an hour and a bit, not an afternoon.
This is the top of the Shenandoah Valley, higher and cooler than the Piedmont, which is why it is apple country in the first place. The season starts earlier here and mornings are cold well before they are cold in Richmond. It is also on the corridor that carries Northern Virginia weekend traffic west into the mountains during leaf season, and October Saturdays on the approach roads run heavy. Leaving early is the standard advice for a reason.
Two things. First, whether a fall festival or pumpkin event is running on your date — coverage of a Pumpkin Festival here is from 2022, describing a one-day October event, and there is nothing to say that repeats in 2026. Second, current apple and pumpkin pricing, so your budget is a plan rather than a hope. One phone call closes both gaps.
The market runs Monday to Friday 9:00am to 6:00pm, Saturday 9:00am to 5:00pm and Sunday noon to 5:00pm in September and October. Apples are offered from large bins out in the orchard on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays starting in September, so those are the days to come if picking is the point. The orchard publishes no 2026 fall-festival dates — its Events page is an unpopulated template — so if a specific festival is what you are after, call 540-662-1391 first. Weekday mornings are the longest, quietest window; Sunday is the shortest day of the week here by a wide margin.
Ninety minutes to two hours. A wagon ride, a cow train, a spell on the playground and a stop in the bakery is a comfortable morning rather than a full day.
Winchester sits at the top of the Shenandoah Valley on the routes that carry Northern Virginia weekend traffic west, and October is leaf season here as well as apple season. Friday to Sunday, when bin picking runs, will be the busiest. Weekday mornings should be genuinely quiet.
Not published. Orchard and market properties in this part of the Valley generally park on gravel or grass; assume soft ground after rain.
Not published. The market and bakery are likely the most accessible part of the property; the orchard bins, wagon rides and playground involve field surfaces and slopes. Call ahead if this matters.
You want a ticketed festival with a corn maze and a haunted trail. This is a market-and-orchard operation, not an amusement farm, and it does not pretend otherwise. Skip a Sunday visit if you cannot arrive before about 3:00pm — a noon opening and a 5:00pm close is a five-hour day and the shortest of the week.
No general admission price is published on the orchard's site, and the operation is set up as a market and orchard rather than a ticketed festival. You pay for what you pick and what you buy.
The orchard states apples are offered from large bins placed out in the orchard on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays starting in September. That is bin selection rather than open-ended wandering through the rows.
In September and October: Monday to Friday 9:00am to 6:00pm, Saturday 9:00am to 5:00pm, and Sunday noon to 5:00pm. Sunday is the shortest day.
Only certified service dogs are allowed inside the farm market. Leashed pets are welcome elsewhere on the property.
2026 dates had not been published when we last checked. In past seasons it has run: Monday-Sunday. Check with the farm before driving out.
Admission is free. No general admission price is published on the orchard's site. Listed pick-your-own prices are cut-your-own flowers at $7.99 a jar and blackberries at $3.99 a pint or $5.99 a quart. Apple and pumpkin prices are not posted online.
3035 Cedar Creek Grade, Winchester, VA 22602, in Frederick County. It is one of 3 patches we track in Shenandoah Valley.
We track 3 patches in Shenandoah Valley, 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.
One caveat worth repeating: this farm had not published its 2026 dates when we last checked, while 0 of the 3 patches we track in Shenandoah Valley had. Treat any date you see elsewhere as last year's until the farm confirms it.
There are 4 other patches we track in Frederick County. All Shenandoah Valley patches →
markermillerorchards.com · pumpkinpatchesandmore.org
Checked August 2026.