Eat your heart out at these NYC-area fall food festivals

We’re not going to pumpkin spice and sugarcoat this.

The brisk temperatures and fleeting daylight hours, not to mention the city’s frenzied back-to-business energy, caught us a little off guard this week. Suddenly our neighbors have adorned their stoops with hard squashes and enormous skeletons. Flocks of geese have been flying overhead for warmer climates. And the FBI has gotten a head start on  trick-or-treating the Adams administration.

Well fear not (unless you work for the mayor). You can make peace with the end of summer and start the new season strong at dozens of fall food festivals occurring almost every weekend throughout Greater New York from now until the end of October. 

The Northeast has a remarkable diversity of produce and culinary traditions – from Long Island wineries to Catskills hard cideries – that speak to our history of immigration and innovation. Where else could you nosh on the best bagels in the world and try fry bread made by the descendants of the Lenape tribe on a single weekend?

You can even still have a traditional country fair experience with vintage tractors, giant pumpkins, and rides but you’ll have to travel a bit for those.

So get out there and taste the best that New York has to offer before the sun disappears at 4 p.m. and another snowless winter descends upon us.

September

Sept. 28: After a delirious season-saving victory last Sunday, the New York Mets are on the road this weekend fighting for a postseason berth. While they’re out of town, the fifth annual New York BagelFest is taking over Citi Field’s Piazza 31 Club on from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

The nation’s premier bagel-tasting event will feature 50 artisan exhibitors hawking their crusty, salty wares, as well as bagel-making classes and enough smoked salmon to tranquilize an adult black bear. Attendees will anoint a “Best Bagel Award” winner among the exhibitors (last year’s first place winner, PopUp Bagels, and runner up, Olmo Bagels, both happened to be from Connecticut, flummoxing city bagel enthusiasts) and can participate in a bagel rolling competition to see how their doughy samples stack up with the professionals. Tickets start at $49.

Sept. 29: The next day, head to Atlantic Avenue for Brooklyn’s version of a country fair, the Atlantic Antic. This isn’t some generic Midtown street festival. More than 400,000 revelers are expected to flock to the 1.5-mile stretch between Fourth Avenue and Hicks Street from 12 to 6 p.m. on Sunday to enjoy non-stop music, shop for clothing and crafts from a multitude of countries and taste offerings from the street’s dozens of restaurants. With more than 300 vendors, it can get intimidating to navigate.

Sept. 28-29: If you’re looking for a more intimate agricultural fair where you can still get your helping of bovine birthing tents and squashes that weigh more than a Hyundai Elantra, there’s the Durham Fair in Durham, Conn. (Sept. 26-29). The 104th annual fair is a two-hour drive from New York City and features more than 1,000 animals in livestock barns; antique farm equipment demonstrations; and beer, wine and cider tastings (you can take MetroNorth to New Haven too but you’d need a taxi or Uber ride to Durham).

Let’s be honest here. You’re coming for the monster truck shows. There’s nothing like seeing a souped up yellow school bus rip air before crushing the life out of four broken-down sedans. USA! USA! General admission to the grounds is $15 and tickets for Midway rides and beer tastings are sold separately.

October

Oct. 5-6: If you’ve never been to the Queens County Farm Museum, get acquainted with the borough’s rural heritage and stop by the Queens Agricultural Fair. The Floral Park festival will feature pie-eating and corn-husking contests, blue ribbon produce competitions, hayrides and a sack race for kids and adults. The top attraction is a three-acre maize maze whose pattern includes a butterfly design in honor of the farm serving as an official waystation for endangered monarch butterflies. Re-enact that scene from The Shining at your own risk. Tickets are $14 for adults and $10 for kids.

Oct. 5: New York has become home to some of the tastiest cider in the world and what better way to try them all than at CiderFeast at Brooklyn’s Industry City. The one-day hard cider festival includes pours from 16 distilleries, half of which are New York-based, so you can decide for yourself who makes the best fermented apple spirit. There will  also be samples of Brooklyn Gin and Upstate Vodka, slices of cured pork, grilled cheese bites, hot sauce shots and, of course, cider donuts. Tickets start around $60.

Oct. 11-14: Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples Day weekend is a great time to get out of town, and if you’re heading out east, stop by the Famous Food Festival at the Tanger Outlets in Deer Park, Long Island, about a 20-minute walk from the Deer Park LIRR station. The four-day food extravaganza features 60 vendors serving cuisines from around the world including South Africa, Slovenia, Peru, Indonesia and Iran. It’s also one of the more affordable global food festivals in the tri-state area with tickets at $8 online and $12 at the door, although food items are sold separately.

Oct. 12-13: If you prefer to visit a festival dedicated to the mysterious pleasures of one glorious ingredient, head out to the Connecticut Garlic and Harvest Festival at the Bethlehem Fairgrounds in Bethlehem, Conn., a two-hour drive from the city (you can take Metro-North to Waterbury, Conn. but then would have to take a taxi or Uber, or the 445 bus to get into town). The two-day festival includes cooking demonstrations, discussions on uses for black garlic and garlic powder, and plenty of garlic-infused products to taste including pizza, fried garlic and even ice cream. Admission is $10 cash only. Vampires eat for free.

Oct 12: Diwali is on Halloween this year, but in Rockland County you can try an array of South Asian flavors at the Indian Food Festival in West Nyack, a 50-minute drive away or an hour ride via Rockland Coaches plus a 50-minute walk. The free festival is at Germonds Park this year and includes a variety of biryanis, dosas and multiple fruit payasams for purchase separately. 

Oct. 13-14: New York’s most reflective fall festival is its Indigenous Peoples Day celebration on Randall’s Island. Now in its 10th year, the gathering of peoples from multiple Native American tribes features 24 hours of dance, food and prayer, culminating in a sunrise water ceremony on Sunday. Overnight camping is offered for $35.

Oct. 20: Orchard Street will not be holding its annual pickle-themed block party this fall, but if you need your half-sour fix, mosey up to the Rosendale International Pickle Festival at the Ulster County Fairgrounds in New Paltz, an hour and forty-minute drive or an hour and forty-minute bus ride via Trailways plus a seven-minute taxi or uber ride.

The 27th annual event includes pickling contests and a pickle-themed triathlon. Don’t worry, you don’t have to run anywhere, you just have to eat a 24-ounce jar of pickles, drink its briny liquid and toss pickle chips into a friend’s mouth who spits the chip back into a jar. Tickets are $5 per person. Bring enough water to dilute all the salt you’ll be consuming.

Oct. 17-20: Finally, there’s the gargantuan New York City Wine and Food Festival featuring spirit tastings, burger-making contests and pier parties with food celebrities. The festival moved to the Brooklyn Army Terminal's 450,000-square-foot culinary campus where more than 80 events will take place over four days. Tickets aren’t cheap. Prices range from $95 to $400 depending on the event, but the events to go to are likely the pier parties. On Thursday, guests can taste burgers, tacos and pizza from Brooklyn’s top chefs and sip gin with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg for $148.73.