Oregon Public Broadcasting

If you've had jack-o-lanterns, warm cider and corn mazes on the mind lately, you're not alone.

More posters and web sites are popping up advertising fall farm festivals in the Northwest.

As Correspondent Anna King reports, that's because there are more fall farm festivals in Washington, Oregon and Idaho than there were even five years ago.

In the Northwest, farmers, wineries, tourism bureaus and even universities are promoting fall farm festivals these days.

Agro-tourism is becoming big business.

Northwest festivals feature corn mazes, hay rides and even pumpkin canons.

Northwest states don't yet have any organized way of counting farm festivals, but anecdotally farmers say they are on the rise.

Linda Neunzig runs a farm festival in Snohomish County. It now has nearly a half dozen festivals up from zero, five years ago.

Linda Neunzig: “Absolutely there are more because there is more demand for people who want to go out to the country to get their pumpkin and go play in the corn maze. It's the whole stay-cation thing.”

Neunzig says along with the increasing popularity of farmers markets, fall farm festivals succeed because people want to get closer to where their food is grown.