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(Pexels)
Pumpkins can mean a lot of different things to people. They can be the most important part of your family's favorite pie recipe, the object for carving spooky art with your friends and significant others, or even the perfect color to complement your fall outfit.
Whatever comes to mind, all of these moments can start out from a simple pumpkin patch. Here are the top pumpkin patches in or near Austin to help you fulfill your pumpkin dreams.
Barton Hill Farms, 1115 FM 969 (Bastrop)
Hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays
Tickets: $21.95
Just 30 miles east of Austin, fall fanatics will have the opportunity to celebrate Barton Hill Farms' 10th Annual Fall Festival until Nov. 7. Not only will it offer a pumpkin patch to explore but also a 5-acre corn maze, flowers for picking, hayrides, live music, food and drinks and 30+ fall activities all on a 118-acre farm off of the Colorado River.
Texas Pumpkin Fest, 1090 East Crystal Falls Parkway (Leander)
Hours: 10 a.m.-7 p.m.
Tickets: $10 Friday-Sunday, free Monday, $5 Tuesday and Thursday
Visitors will have the chance to roam five acres of pumpkins and gourds to pick out the best one for the home. To celebrate Halloween as well as National Magic Month, Texas Pumpkin Fest will have fall games, a "Stranger Things"-themed hay maze, magic shows every weekend and so much more. The fest runs until Nov. 7.
Sweet Eats Fruit Farm, 14400 East State Highway 29 (Georgetown)
Hours: 9 a.m.-6 p.m. every day
Tickets: Ranges from $16.95 to $21.95
Just half an hour north of Austin, Sweet Eats Fruit Farm will be hosting its fall festival until Nov. 21 where visitors can stroll through their 2-acre pumpkin patch that includes 40 pumpkin varieties. It also has a 4.5-acre corn maze to explore and offers a fireworks display, a horse show, a flashlight corn maze and a candy cannon on Fridays and Saturdays. Pig races will be available at 11 a.m., 2 p.m. and 5 p.m., as well as other fall activities all day including wagon rides, live music and a chance to walk through an 11-foot tall pumpkin house.
Evergreen Farms, 242 Monkey Road (Elgin)
Hours: 12-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, 1-5 p.m. Sunday
Tickets: Free admission and parking ($3 tickets required for activities)
This year, Evergreen Farms is hosting a family-friendly pumpkin hunt until Oct. 31 in which visitors will ride on a wagon to the Christmas tree fields and look for hidden mini pumpkins. Though admission is free, purchasable tickets are required for activities such as the pumpkin hunt, a pumpkin launcher, a train ride, fishing, a kids' zipline, a maze and more.
Sweet Berry Farm, 1801 FM 1980 (Marble Falls)
Hours: 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Monday-Friday (closed Wednesday), 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday
Tickets: Free admission and parking (purchasable tickets required for activities)
On this 60-acre farm, all your fall dreams can come true. Have beyond pumpkin picking with goat feeding, picking flowers, three mazes, a barrel train, pumpkin painting, pony rides and scarecrow stuffing. Ice cream and popsicles will also be available to purchase.
Robinson Family Farm, 3780 White Owl Lane (Temple)
Hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. every day
Tickets: $13.95 online and $17.95 at the gate
From now until Oct. 31, the Robinson Family Farm will be hosting its fall festival which includes 20+ attractions. Visitors have the chance to pick out pumpkins as well as take photos in the new pumpkin barn. There will also be herding shows every Sunday in October from 12-3 p.m. as well as chainsaw wood carving every Saturday in October, not including Oct. 2 and 16.
Elgin Christmas Tree Farm, 120 Natures Way (Elgin)
Hours: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday-Friday, 12-5:30 p.m. Sunday
Tickets: $10
At the Elgin Christmas Tree farm, friends and families will have the opportunity to take quality photos with the pumpkins as well as explore two mazes: the crazy maze and the corn maze. Other activities will include rubber duck races, animals to visit, a train and hayride, a playscape and areas for picnics. This will be available until Oct. 31.
Get to cookin', carvin' and photo takin' this fall!
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(Paxton Smith/Instagram)
Paxton Smith’s 2021 valedictory speech at Lake Highlands High School in Dallas wasn’t the same speech she had previously shared with school administrators. She dropped the approved speech and made a case for women’s reproductive rights after lawmakers passed the Texas "Heartbeat Bill.”
Her advocacy made news on NPR, YouTubeTV and in The Guardian. Just over a year later, the “war on (women’s) rights” she forewarned has come to a head as the U.S. Supreme Court voted Friday morning to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending constitutional protection for abortion access.
“It is up to the people to show up and show the courts and the politicians that we won’t sit back and let this happen,” Smith told Austonia Friday morning. “We will show up, we will fight back. Before, we were scared of them, now they should be scared of us.”
Now a University of Texas sophomore and abortion rights activist, 19-year-old Smith said she wanted to give the same speech in the “the most public way possible” to reach “as many people as possible who don't agree that I deserve this right.”
However, she says the response was “actually overwhelmingly positive” and supportive of her cause. According to a recent UT poll, 78% of Texas voters support abortion access in most cases.
The speech opened up further opportunities for activism: she advocated for reproductive rights at the International Forum on Human Rights in Geneva, interviewed with Variety magazine and spoke to tens of thousands at Austin’s Bans Off Our Bodies protest at the Texas Capitol in May.
Smith also serves on the board of directors for the Women’s Reproductive Rights Assistance Project, a national nonprofit organization that helps fund abortions or medication abortion—like Plan C pills—in all 50 states. Most recently, Smith has been attending protests in Washington, D.C. leading up to the ruling.
“This is land of the free. This is where you get to choose how you live your life,” Smith said. “Overturning Roe v. Wade violates everything that we have come to believe about what it means to live in this country. I think a lot of people aren't willing to accept that this is a human right that is most likely just going to be gone for over half of the country within the next couple of weeks.”
Bracing for the next steps, Smith gave some tips for supporters:
- Find a protest to attend.
- “I would say invite somebody to go to those protests with you, invite a couple of friends, invite people into the movement,” Smith said.
- Talk about the issue on social media—use the platform you have.
- “Have these kinds of conversations where people can just talk about their fears and then find ways to go and advocate for yourself,” Smith said.
- Volunteer at a nonprofit near you.
“I feel like a lot of the reason things have gotten as bad as they have within the abortion rights world is that people are not making a scene, not protesting, not putting the effort into ensuring that the government doesn't take away this right,” Smith said. “I want to emphasize that if you're not doing anything, don't expect the best scenario, expect the worst because that's the direction that we're going in.”
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(Council Member Chito Vela/Twitter)
The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that guaranteed a constitutional right to an abortion, Friday morning. Moments later, Austin City Council set a special meeting for next month to pass a resolution aimed at decriminalizing abortion.
The GRACE Act, which stands for guarding the right to abortion care for everyone, is a twofold plan submitted by council member Jose “Chito” Vela. It recommends that city funds shouldn’t be used to surveil, catalog, report or investigate abortions. It also recommends that police make investigating abortion their lowest priority.
Council Member Vanessa Fuentes, who co-sponsored the resolution along with council members Paige Ellis, Kathie Tovo and Mayor Steve Adler, said the importance of the GRACE Act cannot be overstated.
“By introducing this resolution during a special session, City Council is doubling down on fighting back for reproductive health,” Fuentes said. “Items like the GRACE Act will promote essential healthcare while enabling individuals to exercise their bodily freedom.”
The act takes an approach similar to when former council member Greg Casar moved to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana. Ultimately, state law doesn't allow city officials to order police chiefs to adopt specific enforcement policies so the resolution would be a request to Police Chief Joe Chacon. In May, Politico reported that Vela is having "ongoing conversations" with Chacon about the proposal.
Austonia contacted Attorney General Ken Paxton for comment on the GRACE Act but did not hear back by time of publication. On Friday, Paxton celebrated the overturning of Roe and announced an annual office holiday on June 24 in recognition of the high court's decision.
In a press release, Vela said the Texas state government has a history of overturning municipal protections of human rights. Thirty days after the Supreme Court’s ruling, Texas will ban all abortions, with exceptions only to save the life of a pregnant patient or prevent “substantial impairment of major bodily function.”
Still, Vela expressed hope for the GRACE Act’s longevity. Council’s special meeting on it is set for the week of July 18.
“We know this resolution is legally sound, and Austin is not alone in this fight,” Vela said. “We are working with several other cities who are equally horrified by the prospect of an abortion ban and want to do everything they can to protect their residents.”
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