Three dollars a head for the pumpkin patch hayride makes this one of the cheapest patch visits in coastal North Carolina, but the farm's real draw is the family-style restaurant, and the hayride hours are short and awkward early in the week.
Pumpkin patch hayrides are $3 per person for ages 3 and older; pumpkins are charged separately by the pound. Guided fall educational tours (October 6-30, Tuesday-Friday, 9:00am departures, about 1.5 hours) are $14 per person and must be booked on 910-324-3422 ext 35. October live music on Friday and Saturday afternoons is free.
Rough cost for a family of four: about $12.00 in admission alone at the posted starting rate, before pumpkins, food, parking or any add-on listed above. Most families end up well north of that once they are through the gate.
Mike’s Farm is a restaurant with a pumpkin patch attached, and understanding it that way makes the whole schedule legible. The family-style country restaurant is why a lot of people drive out here from Jacksonville and Wilmington. The pumpkin patch is cheap, cheerful and short, and it exists comfortably alongside the food rather than competing with it.
That framing also explains the pricing, which is unusually honest for the category. Three dollars per person for ages 3 and over gets you the hayride out to the pumpkin field. Pumpkins are then paid for by weight. There is no ticket to buy in advance, no wristband, no upsell at a gate - you turn up during the posted hours and pay $3.
Two adults and two school-age children pay $12. Set that against a ticketed fall festival where the same family pays $60 before touching a pumpkin, and the difference is stark. But $12 is not the cost of the day, and the pumpkin is where the money goes: weight-based pricing means two large carvers can easily exceed the entire admission several times over. Choose the pumpkins first, then look at the scale, then decide.
If you eat at the restaurant afterwards, that is the largest line on the receipt by a wide margin, and it is also the reason to come. Budget for it deliberately rather than treating it as an afterthought, and reserve - the record is clear that it books up.
Read the hours carefully because they are uneven in a way that catches people. In October the patch hayrides run Tuesday and Wednesday 1pm to 5pm, Thursday and Friday 1pm to 8pm, and Saturday 10am to 8pm. Sunday and Monday are out entirely.
The practical consequences: there is no morning patch visit except on Saturday. A Tuesday or Wednesday after-school run has to leave immediately, because 5pm is the close. And the restaurant, on the schedule posted in August 2026, only runs Thursday to Saturday from 4pm, so a midweek patch trip is not a dinner trip. Those restaurant hours may extend in the autumn, but that is not something we can confirm, and it is worth a phone call if a meal is the point.
The best-value slot on the whole calendar is Thursday or Friday afternoon. Full hours to 8pm, the restaurant open from 4pm, the shop and bakery from 10am, and none of the Saturday pressure.
The $14 guided fall educational tour is not a fancier hayride. It runs October 6 to 30, Tuesday through Friday, departing at 9am, and lasts about 90 minutes with a cider demonstration, gardening talk and magic show. It has to be booked on extension 35. That is a school-trip-shaped experience, priced accordingly, and it is a good option for a group or a homeschool morning - but a family expecting a bigger version of the $3 ride will be surprised at the format and the early start.
The other is the live music. October Friday and Saturday afternoons bring free music, lawn chairs and wine slushies. That is the most adult-friendly thing on any patch listing in this region and it costs nothing to attend.
Duplin County is coastal-plain North Carolina, which means two things. October afternoons here stay genuinely warm well into the month - this is not mountain weather and you will not need the jacket you would take to Hendersonville. And hurricane season overlaps the start of patch season directly. A storm in late September or early October leaves standing water in flat coastal fields for days afterwards. Check what the weather has done in the preceding week, not only what it is doing on the day.
Pumpkin patch hayrides run Tuesday through Saturday in October. Tuesday and Wednesday are 1pm to 5pm, Thursday and Friday 1pm to 8pm, and Saturday 10am to 8pm - the only morning of the week. Saturday is the long day and the busy one. Thursday or Friday afternoon into the evening is the best compromise: full hours, half the crowd, and the restaurant open from 4pm if you want to eat afterwards. The farm has not published explicit 2026 fall opening and closing dates beyond describing the hayrides as running in October.
An hour to ninety minutes for the hayride and picking a pumpkin. Add two hours if you are eating at the restaurant, and note that October Friday and Saturday afternoons bring free live music, which turns a short stop into a long afternoon.
Saturday is the only day with morning hours and the only day running 10am to 8pm, so it absorbs most of the demand from Jacksonville, Wilmington and the surrounding counties. The restaurant books up independently of the patch. Thursday and Friday evenings are the underused part of the schedule.
Not published. Assume field or gravel parking at a working farm in Duplin County. The coastal plain drains slowly and hurricane season overlaps the start of patch season here more directly than anywhere else in the state - a wet October week means a wet field for days.
Nothing published for the patch. A hayride is a step up into a trailer, which is the usual barrier. The restaurant, bakery and gift shop are the parts of the visit least likely to present a problem. Call 910-324-3422 to ask.
You want a big ticketed fall festival with a corn maze and a dozen attractions - this is a hayride, a pumpkin field and a restaurant, not that. Skip Monday and Sunday entirely for the patch, and skip a Tuesday or Wednesday if you cannot get there before 5pm.
Beulaville sits inland between Jacksonville and Wilmington, an easy run from either. Because the patch hayride is short and the restaurant is the anchor, the natural shape of the day is a Thursday, Friday or Saturday afternoon hayride followed by an early dinner.
Pumpkin patch hayrides are $3 per person for ages 3 and older, with pumpkins charged separately by the pound. There is no advance booking - you turn up during the posted hours.
In October: Tuesday and Wednesday 1pm to 5pm, Thursday and Friday 1pm to 8pm, Saturday 10am to 8pm. Closed Sunday and Monday for the patch. Saturday is the only day with morning hours.
They are separate products. The hayride is $3, drop-in, and takes you out to the pumpkin field. The fall educational tour is $14 per person, runs October 6 to 30 Tuesday to Friday with 9am departures, lasts about 90 minutes, and adds a cider demonstration, a gardening talk and a magic show. It must be booked in advance on 910-324-3422 extension 35.
Only partly. On the schedule posted in August 2026 the restaurant runs Thursday to Saturday 4pm to 8pm and the gift shop and bakery Thursday to Saturday 10am to 8pm. A Tuesday or Wednesday patch visit will not include dinner. Those hours may extend in autumn, so confirm before planning a meal around it.
2026 dates had not been published when we last checked. In past seasons it has run: Pumpkin patch hayrides run Tuesday-Saturday in October. Check with the farm before driving out.
Admission starts at $3 per person. Pumpkin patch hayrides are $3 per person for ages 3 and older; pumpkins are charged separately by the pound. Guided fall educational tours (October 6-30, Tuesday-Friday, 9:00am departures, about 1.5 hours) are $14 per person and must be booked on 910-324-3422 ext 35. October live music on Friday and Saturday afternoons is free.
1600 Haw Branch Road, Beulaville, NC 28518, in Duplin County. It is one of 3 patches we track in Coastal North Carolina.
We track 3 patches in Coastal North Carolina. At $3 a head this one sits right on the regional median of $3.
What sets it apart locally: it has a market, bakery or taproom, which most Coastal North Carolina patches on our list do not.
One caveat worth repeating: this farm had not published its 2026 dates when we last checked, while 1 of the 3 patches we track in Coastal North Carolina had. Treat any date you see elsewhere as last year's until the farm confirms it.
Map pin is set to the town centre. Navigate to the street address above, not the pin.
mikesfarmnc.com
Checked August 2026.