Ask anyone in Mooresville what Carrigan Farms is, and you'll get the same answer: pumpkins in October, maybe strawberries if they're the type to plan ahead. That answer has been half right for fifty years and completely wrong for the last several.
This year the farm added something that has nothing to do with either crop, and it's the kind of change that only makes sense once you see the whole pattern behind it. Carrigan Farms hasn't been adding attractions. It's been closing gaps in its own calendar, one at a time, for years. The pumpkin patch was never the whole story. It was just the part that happened to line up with a holiday.
A Farm That Used To Have Two Seasons
Carrigan Farms sits on Oak Ridge Farm Highway, at the corner of Highway 150 and 152, and it has been worked continuously since 1902, which earns it recognition as a North Carolina Century Farm. The land started in tobacco, cotton, and row crops, then spent a stretch as a dairy operation, before the family shifted to fruit and vegetables in 1975. That's the version of Carrigan Farms most longtime Mooresville residents grew up on: strawberries in late April, a working farm that looked like a working farm, and not much reason to drive out there the rest of the year.
The strawberry window opens in mid-April, alongside asparagus, and by late spring it closes. For a long time, that was it until fall. Two seasons, six months apart, on a property with 275 to 300 acres under cultivation. The gap between them sat empty for decades.
The Quarry Filled The Middle
The first real answer to that gap wasn't a crop at all. Carrigan Farms sits on a former stone quarry, dug out during the construction of I-77 in the late 1960s. Once demand for the stone dried up, the pit filled naturally from an underground spring, and the family eventually opened it for summer swimming. It runs all season, and it's the reason a farm known for produce also shows up in local conversation as a swimming spot.
The quarry didn't just add an attraction. It gave the farm a reason to stay relevant through June, July, and August, the exact stretch that used to sit dead between strawberries and apples. That's the pattern worth noticing: every addition at Carrigan Farms has landed on a month the farm previously had nothing to offer.
The Piece Nobody Saw Coming
For 2026, that pattern continued in a direction longtime visitors probably didn't expect. Carrigan Farms opened its first flower fields, planted in sunflowers and zinnias, and the farm is calling it their inaugural flower-picking season. After more than a century of tobacco, dairy, strawberries, asparagus, apples, and pumpkins, this is the first entirely new crop the farm has added to its public rotation in decades.
It's a small addition in acreage terms, but it says something larger about how the family running this farm thinks about the calendar. They're not trying to become an entertainment complex. They're filling in the one part of the year that still had nothing planted for visitors, using the same u-pick model that's worked for everything else. If you've been going to Carrigan Farms for strawberries every spring and pumpkins every fall and assumed that was the extent of it, this year is the first time there's a reason to show up in between for something that isn't swimming.
What Hasn't Changed, On Purpose
Here's the part that matters if you're planning a visit rather than reading about the history. Carrigan Farms has expanded what it offers without softening what it is. It's still a working farm, and it still runs like one.
A few things to know before you go, whether you're headed out for apples, pumpkins, or the new flower fields:
- Reservations are required for pick-your-own experiences, and weekends fill fast
- The farm is cash only, and there's no ATM on site
- Expect uneven ground and the occasional muddy patch, since this is an active agricultural operation, not a landscaped attraction
- Closed-toe shoes are strongly recommended
- Bring gardening gloves and a pocket knife if you're picking pumpkins off the vine, since the vines run prickly
None of that has changed as the farm has added swimming, a haunted trail in October, and now flowers. That consistency is arguably the more interesting story than any single new offering. A lot of agritourism operations start adding attractions and slowly stop feeling like farms. Carrigan Farms has done the opposite: more to do, same rules, same shoes-required, cash-only character it's had for years.
This Fall's Pumpkin Season, By The Actual Hours
Apple picking runs through September, and it's worth catching before the calendar flips, since it doesn't overlap much with pumpkin season. Once October starts, the schedule gets specific enough that it's worth writing down rather than guessing.
The 2026 pumpkin season runs October 1 through October 31, and the hours shift by day of the week in a way that catches people off guard if they show up expecting a standard weekend-only schedule:
| Day | Hours |
|---|---|
| Monday | 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. |
| Tuesday | 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. |
| Wednesday | 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. |
| Thursday | 9:00 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. |
| Friday | 12:45 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. |
| Saturday | 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. |
| Sunday | 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. |
Pricing runs $16 per person for ages two and up, with a hayride to the pumpkin patch and a stop at the petting zoo included in the trip. Every visit requires a reservation booked in advance, and because this is the one weekend of the year most families in Mooresville treat as a fixed tradition, weekend slots go first. If your family has a standing October Saturday planned, get the reservation on the calendar now rather than waiting until the leaves actually turn.
October also brings the farm's haunted trail, run under the name Scarrigan Farms, for anyone looking to turn the same property into an evening plan rather than a daytime one.
The Actual Takeaway
None of this changes what Carrigan Farms fundamentally is. It's still a family farm that's been in the same hands since 1902, still growing real crops on real acreage, still charging cash at a folding table. What's changed is how much of the calendar that farm now touches. What used to be a two-visit-a-year stop, strawberries in spring and pumpkins in fall, now has a swimming season, a flower season, and a haunted trail layered in around the original two. The nickname "the pumpkin patch" was always going to undersell a place doing this much. This is just the first year it's been obvious.
If you're already planning your October weekend around Carrigan Farms, that's the kind of local rhythm we love paying attention to at Judy Robertson Homes. Whether you're new to Mooresville or you've been making this same October drive for a decade, we're always glad to talk about what makes this town feel like home, on the farm and off it. Let's connect.
