YACOLT — A warm breeze blew through the air Saturday morning at Pomeroy Farm. It carried the scent of hay, leading attendees at the farm’s annual Pumpkin Lane event to a barn hosting kids’ activities — a grain box filled with toy tractors and sand toys, and a hay bale maze.

In the field across the path from the activity barn, families played lawn games, while some children lassoed a wooden steer.

The breeze brought smells of coffee and barbecue as folks waited in line for the hayride. Once aboard, attendees caught glimpses of “pumpkin people” up to both grand and very regular experiences out in the woods beyond the pumpkin patch.

Jonathan Thomas brought his family from their Vancouver home to Pumpkin Lane a few years ago, he said from his seat aboard the hayride.

“It was fun,” he said of his family’s past experience, “especially this ride with all the pumpkin scenes.”

Where: Pomeroy Farm, 20902 N.E. Lucia Falls Road, Yacolt

When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through the rest of October

Admission: $7 for adults, $5 for kids 3-11, and free for kids 2 and younger

Note: Pumpkins are not included in the price of admission. Parking is free; cash and cards are accepted for both admission and pumpkin purchases.

Thomas’ kids love just riding on the tractor, but the pumpkin scenes make it even more enjoyable.

In the pumpkin patch at the end of the ride, moms and dads chased their little ones through the field, snapping cute fall photos along the way.

The Brown family visits a pumpkin patch every year and had never been to Pumpkin Lane before.

“We thought the historical piece — just to come and check out the family farm and see what the history used to be — would be good,” said Hope Brown. She and her husband, Michael, live nearby in Yacolt and have four children.

Jason Higgins and his family live just 5 miles from the farm. His real estate agent wife hosts an appreciation party for her clients once a year at Pomeroy House.

“It’s nice to get out. The kids can ride around on the tractor and enjoy some fun,” said Higgins.

The couple’s teenage son agreed.

“It’s nice seeing all the stuff,” said Higgins’ son Derrik. “It’s a nice time of year.”

October is the farm’s biggest revenue-generating month of the year, marking the event’s importance.

Pumpkin Lane is “the biggest attraction we do throughout the year, which sustains everything else we do — our school programs, field trips and other programs that we’re able to do,” said Megan Miller.

Miller is the executive director of the Pomeroy Farm nonprofit. Her great-great-grandparents purchased the farm in 1910. It’s at 20902 N.E. Lucia Falls Road.

“They’ve been here ever since,” she said. She has family members who still live on the farm, which she herself grew up on.

The Pumpkin Lane event has been going for about 30 years, said Miller. She thinks a lot of folks who come to visit the farm today do so because they came as kids, or their parents or grandparents used to come. Now they want to bring their own kids.

“I think people love to come out here and reconnect,” Miller told The Columbian. “It’s just a beautiful space.”

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