Monday, November 10, 2025
Despite the summer weather, it’s autumn at Crossroads Farm at Grossmann’s.
The farm, on Hempstead Avenue, kicked off a month-long fall festival over the weekend. To celebrate the season, every Saturday and Sunday this month, from noon to 5 p.m., there will be free fall-themed festivities for all to enjoy.
Farm store hours have been expanded as well. Usually open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays, the store will be open until 5 p.m. on Saturdays, and from noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays.
The festival offers opportunities to have your face painted, listen to live music, play in the bounce house, eat at the food trucks and enjoy children’s activities. Barrier Brewing Co. will serve beers in cans and on tap, including pumpkin ale and a pumpkin cider.
“I’m selling apple cider donuts, pumpkin donuts and pumpkin brownies,” Stephanie Fitzpatrick, owner of the Malverne-based Rare Treats Baking Company, said. She creates sweet treats that are dairy- and nut-free, and others that comply with food restrictions such as gluten, soy and eggs. Fitzpatrick is selling her sweets at the fall festival, but her treats are always available in the farm store during the week. She suggests pairing them with a fall beer from Barrier Brewing.
In the pumpkin patch, the farm sells warty pumpkins, winter gourds, and white and Field Trip pumpkins as well as face pumpkins, which are used for jack-o’-lantern carving. To enter the pumpkin patch, there is a suggested $5 donation to the farm, and pumpkin prices range from $3 to $30, depending on the size. Farms in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, provide the pumpkins.
“We really like the quality of the pumpkins at the Amish Grove,” Crossroads’ operations manager, Michael D’Angelo, said of the pumpkins provided by Amish farmers. “They give them a lot of time to cure, so you’ll notice the stems are a lot harder and longer. They last longer and they’re all edible, so you can make a pie with them when you’re done. They’re definitely a step up from a regular grocery store pumpkin.”
The farm store is stocked with more than the usual locally grown produce from Crossroads and other local organic farms, including apples, apple cider, apple cider donuts, and pears.
“We have 11 varieties of apples this weekend,” D’Angelo said on Sunday. He added that he expected the varieties to change each weekend depending on what’s available and in season. “They’re all labeled, and we have signs that explain what each variety of apples is good for.”
There are five varieties of pears in the store, including Asian pears grown on the farm. The farm will also soon be stocked with winter squashes, which are harvested from the farm, including spaghetti, butternut, kabocha and delicata squash.
D’Angelo said he expected the farm’s sunflower patch to bloom this month as well.
In previous years, the Fall Festival was a one-day event, but last year Crossroads began holding the festivities every weekend in October.
“We want to be able to accommodate multiple communities of people at once,” store manager Sara Sanotra explained. “October’s a busy time for a lot of people — they’re going out of state, going apple picking upstate, out East. So having Saturdays and Sundays gives people time to come either day, and with free entry, they can come back over and over again.”
