When Dracut's Apple Picking Ends, the Farm Stands Switch to a Different Calendar
October 15, 2026
October 15, 2026
Dracut has five weekend days of apple picking left. Farmer Dave's runs pick-your-own on weekends only, from September 12 through the end of October. With today being Monday, October 12, that leaves October 17 and 18, October 24 and 25, and Saturday, October 31. After that, the town's farm stands don't all close together. Some keep the same hours they had in July. Some close their doors after Halloween. A few wind down after pumpkin season and pick up again in December with Christmas trees.
The two farms whose published hours run all year sit on Parker Road and New Boston Road. The Broadway Road farms with documented seasons run from pumpkins and mums in October to trees and kissing balls in December. If you know which road a farm is on, you'll usually know which calendar it keeps.
Farmer Dave's at 437 Parker Road charges by bag size for apple picking. A half-peck for one guest is $15, a peck for two is $28, and a half-bushel for four is $48. Admission also covers the corn maze, the weekend wagon rides, and the carrot and potato digging the farm runs in October. Since the root-vegetable digging only runs in October, it ends along with the apples. If you want a weekend outing that isn't only about the orchard, the remaining October weekends are your chance.
For a group that doesn't want to pick, the farm lists $10 admission to the orchard, playground, wagon ride and corn maze. Pumpkins cost $0.79 per pound, with a $25 cap. The farm notes that these prices depend on the harvest and may change. Orchard admission ends at 5 p.m., so a late-afternoon Saturday trip has less time in it than the stand's posted hours suggest.
The Saturday of the second-to-last weekend has a scheduling overlap. The Town of Dracut lists its Trunk or Treat for October 24, 2026, from 5 to 7 p.m. Orchard admission stops at 5, so a family could pick apples in the afternoon and still make the start of Trunk or Treat. The town calendar doesn't give an address for the event, so check for the location before you go.
Picking stops at the end of October, but the Farmer Dave's stand doesn't close. Its locations page lists the Dracut Home Farm & Farm Stand as open daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., with produce, bakery and kitchen items, beer and wine. The farm describes the stand as year-round and gives no closing date.
The ice cream is the one part that does close. Farmer Dave's calls its Shaw Farm ice-cream window seasonal, May through October. Fall hours are Fridays 2 to 8 p.m. and weekends noon to 8 p.m. So the last cone on Parker Road comes in the same week as the last apples.
After October, the farm's business shifts toward the kitchen. The CSA page describes a seven-week Fall Share from late October through mid-December, made up of storage crops and late-season produce and sized to provide a Thanksgiving feast. A Winter Share follows, with four pickups every other week in January and February. The CSA page doesn't put a year on either window, so confirm the 2026 start dates with the farm.
The holiday pre-order page covers most of a Thanksgiving table, including:
The page doesn't list prices or a 2026 ordering deadline, so ask about the cutoff early in November rather than the week of the holiday.
Shaw Farm at 204 New Boston Road has the steadiest schedule in town. Its farm store is open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. from April 1 to October 1. From October 1 to April 1 it closes at 8 p.m. instead. That one hour is the only seasonal change on the posted schedule. The ice cream stand follows the same pattern, open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the warm months and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. from October through March.
Shaw Farm ice cream is easy to mix up because it's sold in two places. The window at Farmer Dave's closes after October. The stand at Shaw Farm on New Boston Road lists winter hours and no closing date. Once Parker Road's window shuts, New Boston Road is still open.
Shaw's other year-round service comes to the door. The farm describes home delivery of its own milk and ice cream, plus cheese, bakery items, premium meats and other goods it sources. Delivery can be weekly or every other week, with no minimum order and no contract. Long after the orchard closes, a Dracut dairy is still bringing milk to the porch.
The Broadway Road farms are where the October cutoff is most noticeable.
Ogonowski Farm at 713 Broadway Road sells mums, pumpkins, cornstalks and hay bales. Its posted hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily from September 1 through October 31. A 2024 town profile describes the same October lineup. We didn't find a source confirming holiday sales there in November or December. If you need porch cornstalks and hay bales, October 31 is the date to plan around.
Brox Farm at 1276 Broadway Road has been operating at that address since 1902. A Town of Dracut profile describes its busiest stretch as ending in October with pumpkin season. Things pick up again in December, when the farm sells Christmas trees, kissing balls and other ornaments. That profile was written a few seasons ago and doesn't give exact holiday dates or hours. Before you drive over for a tree, call the farm at 866-272-2769, the number the town lists.
Lily Mack Farm at 702 Broadway Road, a short way from Ogonowski, is the other Broadway Road name in the town's holiday coverage. A December 2023 town post listed it as a Christmas tree seller that also carried wreaths, kissing balls and other holiday decorations. Those hours came from the 2023 season, so check this year's schedule before you go.
According to the same town profile, a member of the Brox family once leased the Broadway Road farm to Dave Dumaresq for nine years. When the Brox family took the farm back, Dumaresq opened his own farm a couple of miles away. That farm became Farmer Dave's. So the year-round stand on Parker Road and the pumpkins-to-Christmas-trees farm on Broadway Road started from the same land.
The profile also describes the Brox family as the third generation running the farm, with a fourth generation already working at the stand. The two farms have ended up on different schedules. One is open every day of the year, and the other has its busiest stretch in October and picks up again in December for the holidays.
Here are the dates from above in order. Several come from pages with no year printed, so confirm before making a special trip.
Our team lives and works in Dracut, so we follow these farm seasons the same way our neighbors do. If you have questions about a particular part of town, or about which nearby roads have farm stands that stay open into winter, O'Connell & Company Real Estate is happy to talk it through. Contact Us any time this fall.
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