A quintessential local farm celebrates Halloween with family time and fresh air

Trick-Or-Treat The Farm is looking to provide a unique Halloween season experience to families and children on the family-owned 1870 Farm.

Chapel Hill’s 1870 Farm is hosting their third annual Trick-Or-Treat The Farm, a Halloween-themed event, five more times this October and early November. 

The event includes two hours of family-friendly fun on the farm with activities like trick-or-treating, seeing animals in costume, pumpkin picking and painting, a walk through the hay-bale art field and a hayride through the pasture. 

Trick-Or-Treat The Farm limits the number of people per event so attendees can get more out of the experience than picking out a pumpkin in a busy patch, said David Schwartz, owner of the 1870 Farm.

“We always like to create something new. I think we’re all pretty creative here and like to create new experiences, something that’s more than just coming and feeding and petting an animal,” said David Schwartz’s daughter, Lindsey.

Both David Schwartz and his partner, Amanda McKee, the veterinarian at the farm, emphasized the quality time friends and family get to spend together when they unplug from devices while at the farm. 

“What I noticed by watching is that if you walk almost anywhere, whether it’s a mall or a sporting event, people are always looking at their phones," David Schwartz said. "But once they get to the farm, the only thing they’re really looking at their phones for is to take pictures."

The event is special for parents too, said Lindsey Schwartz.

“This was one of my favorite types of things growing up,” she said. "(Parents) get to do something they used to do as a kid that maybe they don’t always get to do now."

She said the farm has many returning attendees who know and love the animals they met during summer camp at 1870 Farm.

“I hope they have a great time,” Lindsey Schwartz said. "If they haven’t been here before, they get to see the farm. If they have been here, they get to see the animals they love."

1870 Farm is an educational farm that hopes to encourage children to learn about the world through experiences and animal interaction, not just textbooks and electronics, McKee said.

“We get kids that come out to the farm and don’t know that eggs really come out of chickens,” McKee said.

David and Lindsey Schwartz and McKee all agreed that the educational aspect of 1870 Farm is at the forefront of the farm's objectives.

“The small farm is an endangered species — having people come out and learn to appreciate the value of a farm as opposed to the next new development, I think is really important," McKee said. "These farms are going to continue to vanish unless a value is placed on them that is greater than financial gain."

The farm is transformed for holiday seasons, such as Halloween, Christmas and a winter wonderland, Lindsey Schwartz said.

The Schwartz family opened a sister farm a couple of years ago in Durham called OId Mill Farm.

“We hope for our events to be as inclusive and as varied (at Old Mill Farm) as what we’re doing at 1870 Farm, in the future,” McKee said. 

@emmatcraig

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