The Weekend Ahead: Journey Through the Past, Oktoberfest in Warren and Bedminster Fall Fest

Good morning, Somerset County. This is a history weekend. The county's free Journey Through the Past opens historic sites from one end of Somerset to the other on Saturday and Sunday, Millstone stages an original play for its 250th anniversary, and in the Sourlands an 1899 camp meeting comes back to life. There's plenty of fall in between: Oktoberfest at Forest Lodge in Warren, Bedminster's Fall Fest, Snyder's Farm's festival in Franklin and Halloween hayrides at Lord Stirling Park.

Friday

• Halloween Hayrides at Lord Stirling Park — 5 to 9 PM, 256 S. Maple Avenue, Basking Ridge. The Lord Stirling Stable runs two rides: a family-friendly one with ghost stories and a "jump scare" ride for ages 10 and up. $15 per person; advance registration and a signed waiver are required. Also Saturday and Sunday; this is the last weekend.
• Pumpkin Carving with Goats — 5 PM, Abma's Farm, 282 Amwell Road, Hillsborough. A one-hour carving session with the farm's goats for company, petting zoo included. BYOB. Pumpkins are bought separately at the farm market.

Saturday

• Searching for Macroinvertebrates — 9:30 AM, Duke Farms, Hillsborough. A guided look at the tiny stream creatures that show how clean the water is.
• Oktoberfest at Forest Lodge — gates open 10 AM, 11 Reinman Road, Warren. The 17th annual festival has a live German band and a DJ, German entrées and desserts alongside American barbecue, German craft beer, more than 20 local vendors and family activities. Tickets start at $12; kids under 10 get in free, and parking is free. The rain date is Sunday.
• Snyder's Farm Fall Festival — 10 AM to 3 PM, 586 South Middlebush Road, Somerset (Franklin Township). Pumpkin picking and farm activities; festival admission is required to enter the pumpkin field. Weekends through Oct. 25. Farm details.
• Bedminster Fall Fest — noon to 5 PM, River Road Park, 3055 River Road, Bedminster. The township's big community day: a social tent, live music, entertainment, activities for kids and adults, exhibitors and contests. Admission is $5 per person. The rain date is Sunday.
• Revolutionary Pub Crawl — 12:30 to 3:30 PM (check-in from 12:10), Bernardsville. Part town tour and part history lesson, led by reenactors through the town's landmarks.
• Artillery in the Revolutionary War — 1 PM, Raritan Public Library, 54 East Somerset Street. What helped Washington win, and the difference between a cannon and a mortar.
• RVCC Planetarium — Raritan Valley Community College, Branchburg. Four shows: Earth, Moon, and Sun (and Coyote) at 3, the Monster Mash Laser Concert at 4, Skies Over Hogwarts at 7, and the Fright Light Laser Concert at 8. $11 for one show, $20 for two; reservations are recommended at (908) 231-8805.
• Historic Skillman Camp Meeting Reenactment — 4 PM, Mt. Zion AME Church and the Reasoner-True House, 189 Hollow Road, Skillman. The Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum recreates an 1899 camp meeting at two landmarks where camp meetings were held from the 1800s into the 1930s. The free, family-friendly afternoon has costumed reenactors, the SSAAM Heritage Choir, storytellers, horse-and-buggy rides, historic games, crafts, face painting and a bake sale for the museum. It's part of Journey Through the Past.
• The Final Tolling of the Bells — 6 to 7:30 PM, Hillsborough Reformed Church at Millstone, 1429 Main Street. For Millstone's 250th anniversary, local actors perform playwright Vita Morales's original drama about the town in a pivotal moment of the Revolution. Free.
• Big Yellow Taxi: The Music of Joni Mitchell — 7:30 PM, Sieminski Theater, 8000 Fellowship Road, Basking Ridge. Singer Teresa Lorenço and the band cover Joni from her folk roots to her jazz years. Tickets are $41 to $61.

Sunday

• Pajamas & Pancakes — 10 AM, Shimon and Sara Birnbaum JCC, 775 Talamini Road, Bridgewater. Families come in their pajamas for breakfast, live music and dancing with a children's entertainer.
• Craft Fair & Open Air Market — 10 AM to 4 PM, JPA Plaza, 434 Route 206, Hillsborough. Handmade goods from local makers, just in time for early holiday shopping. Kids and pets welcome.
• Journey Through the Past continues from noon to 4 PM. Sunday is a good day for the sites you didn't get to on Saturday, and admission is free everywhere.

All weekend

Somerset County's Journey Through the Past

The 21st annual Journey Through the Past runs Saturday, October 10, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, October 11, from noon to 4 p.m. Historic sites around the county open their doors, with activities that show what life was like 50, 100 or 250 years ago and a focus this year on Somerset's Revolutionary War history. Admission is free at every site.

• Collect a pin: Visit at least three sites to earn a limited-edition pin marking the nation's 250th anniversary. Only the first 250 people get one.
• Collect the postcards: The Five Generals Houses are handing out a set of limited-edition postcards all weekend.
• Before you go: The county posts the list of participating sites and the latest updates, plus virtual programs that run all month.

Journey Through the Past on the Somerset County website

• Mid-Autumn Lantern Festival at Bridgewater Commons — noon to 6 PM through Sunday. Fifteen illuminated handmade Chinese lanterns, some 10 feet tall, fill the mall's first two levels, with lantern-making workshops in the Events Space.
• Fall on the farm in Hillsborough. Abma's Farm has hayrides, two corn mazes, pumpkin picking and a petting zoo. Norz Hill Farm runs a 7.5-acre corn maze and hayrides by day, and its Scare Farm after dark on fall weekends.
• Fired en Masse at the Center for Contemporary Art, 2020 Burnt Mills Road, Bedminster: large-scale ceramics by eight New Jersey artists, on view through Dec. 7.

Around the county

• Branchburg open space: Branchburg is moving to designate two properties as open space. Separately, the township approved a bond ordinance to fund a municipal annex. More in News
• Foodstock in Basking Ridge: Students collected 3,200 pounds of food in their first Foodstock drive. More in Education
• Bernards schools: The Bernards Township School District ranks among the top 15 districts in New Jersey. In the Somerset Hills, mayors and the school district are continuing their regional roundtable talks. More in Education
• Know your ballot: Local candidate guides are out for Watchung, Green Brook and North Plainfield, and Bridgewater-Raritan school board candidates have published their profiles. Election Day is Tuesday, November 3. More in Politics
• Next weekend: The 105th Far Hills Race Meeting is Saturday, October 17, at Moorland Farm in Far Hills. Gates open at 8 a.m. and the first race goes off at 1 p.m. farhillsrace.org

More events are on the Somerset County events calendar. Have an event, an opening or a road closure we should know about? Send it our way.