Twelve dollars buys a genuinely long list of included attractions, including a soybean maze low enough for an adult to see across — but pumpkins, gem mining and paintball all cost extra, and the hours carry a weather-permitting caveat.
$12 admission; children 2 and under free. Season pass $28. Gemstone mining, pumpkins, paintball and concessions cost extra.
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.
Twelve dollars is a low gate price for this many attractions. A nine-acre corn maze, a soybean maze, a sunflower path, a jumping pillow, hayrides, a barrel train, putt-putt golf, ball zones, duck races and slides, all covered by one ticket. Two adults and two children over the age of 2 is $48, which for a three-to-four-hour afternoon in central Ohio is fair.
The pattern to watch for is what sits outside that ticket. Pumpkins are extra. Gemstone mining is extra. Paintball is extra. Concessions are extra. That is normal enough, but the pumpkins one is worth flagging specifically: at a farm where $12 covers ten different things, most people assume the pumpkin is among them, and it is not.
Every farm in this region has a corn maze. A soybean maze is a genuinely different object, because soybeans are a low crop and corn is not. In a corn maze you are walking between walls you cannot see over; in a soybean maze an adult can see across the whole field.
For a four-year-old who has just discovered they do not like being surrounded by eight-foot corn, that difference is the entire visit. Having both on one site means you can start in the soybeans, find out how the child feels about it, and then decide about the nine-acre corn maze rather than committing blind.
The farm publishes its hours as 10am to 7pm, weather permitting. Most farms leave that unstated and simply close when they need to; Van Buren says it out loud, which is honest and which you should act on.
Practically: this is a farm of open fields, mazes, an inflatable pillow and outdoor games, and none of that works in heavy rain or on saturated ground. On a doubtful morning, confirm before you drive to Hebron. Licking County gets enough autumn rain that this will come up.
September 12 to November 1 is seven and a half weeks, five days a week — one of the longer and more flexible runs in central Ohio, and a real advantage over the weekends-only farms further north. It also runs one day past Halloween, which is useful for anyone who leaves the carving pumpkin until the last possible moment.
The trade-off is at the front of the season rather than the end. The sunflower path is a September attraction. Sunflowers are earlier than pumpkins and a northern field does not hold them into late October, so if the flowers are why you picked this farm, come in the first few weeks and ask about the field before you set off.
At the other end, the 7pm close is deceptive. In mid-September that is a long, warm evening. On the closing weekend it is dark and cold well before the gates shut. A late-season visit should be a middle-of-the-day visit, with more layers than the forecast implies for anyone who will be sitting still on a hayride.
The 2026 season runs September 12 to November 1, Wednesday through Sunday, 10am to 7pm — and the farm attaches a weather-permitting note to those hours, which is unusual and worth taking seriously. Check before you drive out on a wet day. Wednesday and Thursday are the quiet days; October weekends carry the demand. If the sunflower path is part of why you are coming, go in September, because sunflowers do not survive a Licking County October. The November 1 close gives you one extra day past Halloween, which is rare in this region.
Three to four hours. With two mazes, a sunflower path, a jumping pillow, hayrides, a barrel train, putt-putt, ball zones, duck races and slides all included, a family leaving after ninety minutes has used a fraction of a $12 ticket.
Five operating days a week across seven and a half weeks is a generous spread by central Ohio standards, and it keeps midweek genuinely quiet. October Saturdays and Sundays are the peak. Hebron sits close enough to both Columbus and Newark that weekend demand is regional rather than local.
Not described by the farm. A Keller Road farm of this size will park you on grass, which after Licking County autumn rain becomes mud — and the weather-permitting hours suggest the farm itself takes wet ground seriously.
You want an all-inclusive ticket. Pumpkins, gemstone mining, paintball and concessions are all extra on top of the $12, and gem mining in particular is where family budgets quietly double. Skip a rainy day too, since the farm's own hours are conditional on weather.
Pigeon Roost Farm is also in Hebron and prices almost identically at $12 admission with a $28 season pass. The difference is what you pay for: Pigeon Roost makes parking, the market and the pumpkin area free and charges for its Fun Center, while Van Buren bundles more behind the gate and charges extra for pumpkins. For a cheap hour, Pigeon Roost. For a full afternoon, Van Buren.
Twelve dollars for admission, with children 2 and under free, and a season pass at $28. Gemstone mining, pumpkins, paintball and concessions all cost extra on top.
Exactly what it sounds like — a maze cut into a soybean field rather than a corn field. Because soybeans are a low crop, an adult can see across it. That makes it a much gentler proposition for a small child who finds the walls of a corn maze frightening, and it is a genuinely unusual thing for an Ohio farm to offer alongside a full-height nine-acre corn maze.
The farm publishes its 10am to 7pm hours with a weather-permitting caveat, which is its own way of saying not necessarily. Check before making the drive on a wet day.
November 1, 2026 — a day past Halloween, which is later than most farms in central Ohio and useful if you leave the pumpkin to the last moment.
September 12 – November 1, 2026. Wednesday through Sunday. Hours: 10am-7pm (weather permitting).
Admission starts at $12 per person. $12 admission; children 2 and under free. Season pass $28. Gemstone mining, pumpkins, paintball and concessions cost extra.
5066 Keller Road, 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 51 days against a regional average of 45, so it is broadly in line with the rest of the region.
There is 1 other patch we track in Licking County. All Central Ohio patches →
vanburenacres.com
Checked August 2026.