Parking, the market and the pumpkin area are all free — you only pay if you want the Fun Center, which makes this the lowest-risk stop in central Ohio for a family with an unpredictable toddler. It is also card-only, with no cash accepted.
Great Pumpkin Fun Center $12 for ages 2+; under 2 free. Season pass $28 per person. No admission charge for the market, pumpkin area or parking. Credit card only - no cash accepted.
Rough cost for a family of four: about $48.00 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.
Pigeon Roost is structured differently from most of the farms on this list, and the difference is worth understanding before you go. There is no gate fee. Parking is free, the farm market is free, and the pumpkin area is free. What costs money is the Great Pumpkin Fun Center, at $12 a head for anyone over the age of 2.
That means there are two entirely different visits available here. One is an hour: park, walk into the market, pick a pumpkin, take the photograph, go home, having spent whatever the pumpkin cost. The other is an afternoon: buy Fun Center admission for the family, spend $48 for two adults and two children, and use it.
Both are legitimate. Most farms in central Ohio only offer the second.
If you are travelling with a toddler, the calculation at a paid-gate farm is uncomfortable. You spend $50 or $60 before you know whether the child is going to nap, melt down, or refuse to leave the car park. Half an hour later you may be driving home having bought nothing you used.
Here, that risk is zero. You lose the drive and nothing else. For families with children under about three, and for anyone who just wants the pumpkin, that is genuinely the most useful feature any farm in this batch offers.
The farm states it is credit card only and takes no cash. This catches people out because a farm market is exactly the kind of place where you expect a cash box, and because plenty of visitors bring cash specifically to control what the children spend.
Bring a card. There is no workaround.
The farm is open 10am to 7pm, Wednesday through Sunday. Last entry to the Fun Center is 6pm. That one-hour gap is the thing people misread — arriving at 5.45pm buys you fifteen minutes of entry window and a short evening, not two hours.
There is a northern reason to arrive earlier still. By the second half of October, 7pm in Licking County is well into darkness and the temperature has dropped, and a corn maze plus wagon rides plus outdoor play is not what anyone wants at that point. A late-October visit should be aimed at the middle of the day.
The farm lists the corn maze, the Fun Center, tractor wagon rides, paintball, face painting, the pumpkin area, the market, and weekend crafters and food. It states clearly what is free — parking, market, pumpkin area — and prices the Fun Center at $12, but does not draw a precise line around the rest.
Paintball in particular is not usually included in a general family admission anywhere. Ask at the gate before your ten-year-old is told they are doing paintball. And if you are visiting more than twice this season, the $28 pass makes the arithmetic easy: two visits and a bit.
The 2026 season runs September 12 to October 31, Wednesday through Sunday, closed Monday and Tuesday, 10am to 7pm. The detail that matters is the last entry to the Great Pumpkin Fun Center at 6pm — arrive at half five expecting a full evening and you will get half an hour. Wednesday and Thursday are the quiet days; October Saturdays are the crush, as they are everywhere in Licking County. If you are coming for the free half of the farm only, any day works and the market is at its best in the middle of the season.
An hour for a pumpkin and a wander round the market, or two to three hours if you buy Fun Center admission and use it. The two visits are genuinely different lengths and cost $0 and $12 a head respectively.
A seven-week season with five operating days a week spreads demand better than the weekends-only farms nearby. October weekends still carry most of it, and the free-entry model means the market and pumpkin area draw people who would not pay a gate fee, so the car park can be busier than the Fun Center.
Free, which the farm states explicitly. Surface is not described — assume grass or gravel, and assume mud after autumn rain, which in Licking County is a reliable feature of October.
You are carrying only cash. The farm states plainly that it accepts credit cards only and no cash at all, which is unusual enough that people get caught by it. Skip the Fun Center ticket too if you are arriving after 6pm, since that is the last entry.
Van Buren Acres is also in Hebron and charges an almost identical $12 admission with a $28 season pass. The difference is in what that buys: Van Buren bundles more attractions behind the gate and charges extra for pumpkins and gem mining, while Pigeon Roost gives away the market and the pumpkin area and charges for the Fun Center. If you want a full paid day, Van Buren. If you want a cheap hour, Pigeon Roost.
The Great Pumpkin Fun Center is $12 for anyone aged 2 and over, with under-2s free, and a season pass is $28. There is no charge at all for parking, the farm market or the pumpkin area, so you can visit and buy a pumpkin without paying admission.
No. The farm states it is credit card only and does not accept cash. This is the detail most likely to catch someone out, particularly at a farm market where cash feels like the natural thing to carry.
Six o'clock for the Great Pumpkin Fun Center, an hour before the 7pm close. Plan your arrival around that rather than around closing time.
The farm lists the A-maize-ing corn maze, tractor wagon rides, paintball and face painting alongside the Fun Center without spelling out exactly which the $12 covers. Ask at the gate before promising anything, particularly the paintball.
September 12 – October 31, 2026. Wednesday through Sunday (closed Monday and Tuesday). Hours: 10am-7pm; last entry to the Fun Center is 6pm.
Admission starts at $12 per person. Great Pumpkin Fun Center $12 for ages 2+; under 2 free. Season pass $28 per person. No admission charge for the market, pumpkin area or parking. Credit card only - no cash accepted.
4413 National Road SW, Hebron, OH 43025, in Licking County. It is one of 6 patches we track in Central Ohio.
We track 6 patches in Central Ohio. At $12 a head this one sits right on the regional median of $12.
Its season runs about 50 days against a regional average of 45, so it is broadly in line with the rest of the region.
What sets it apart locally: it has a market, bakery or taproom, which most Central Ohio patches on our list do not.
There is 1 other patch we track in Licking County. All Central Ohio patches →
pigeonroostfarm.com
Checked August 2026.