As much as we might hate to admit it, autumn is nipping at our heels. And nothing marks the season like apples and pumpkins.

Two destinations to celebrate the fall season are less than a 30-minute drive from Mankato.

Welsh Heritage Farms is the red building with the apple motif on Highway 60 about eight miles west of Mankato. It is a family business, owned by Larry and Pam Harbo of rural Lake Crystal.

The first apples are harvested from the Welsh Heritage Farms Orchards in August. The harvest runs through October, or until temperatures regularly fall below 26 degrees.

Welsh Heritage Farms is a retail outlet, but the Harbos have built in many things to draw people to the store for more than just a chance to buy locally produced, fresh apples.

“We’ve added value (to the apples),” Larry Harbo says.

It used to be that people came and bought apples by the bushel or half-bushel to make their own pies, sauce and apple butter. When Harbo noticed people were buying a peck, or even half a peck (there are 16 pecks in a bushel), he quickly realized it was because people were no longer baking their own pies.

The Harbos rented the kitchen at the Pemberton School and began making and selling their own pies. When a bakery was put in place at Welsh Heritage Farms, windows into the bakery were included. Now people can watch as the pie they will take home is produced. Pies are offered frozen, to be baked at home, or ready to serve. There is also apple butter, all sorts of jams and jellies, and a little bit of history posted as pictures on the walls of the store.

Windows into the weight-sorting packaging line are also a look into the processing of apples sold inside the store. People can watch as the apples tumble down a don-bruising line and are sorted by weight.

For those interested in the nitty-gritty of apple growing, Welsh Heritage Farms also offers tours for a small fee, if set up in advance. If Larry Harbo is able to lead the tour, he loves to tell people about the history of apples (native to Kazakhstan) and his 1,500 trees that produce up to 10 bushels each every year. He’ll also tell people how he uses a time-proven method of harvesting apples. The method was developed at the beginning of time, he says, and it’s called “hand-picking.”

Pumpkinland is about 20 miles south of Mankato, on Highway 169 just outside of Vernon Center. It’s the establishment on the west side of the highway with the pumpkin motif. Another clue is the 10 acres of pumpkins growing out back.

Owner Larry Barott describes the beginnings of Pumpkinland as “a lemonade stand that got out of control.” In 1972, the previous owner’s daughter started selling gourds and pumpkins at a stand at the end of the driveway. The rest, as they say, is history.

Starting the last weekend in September, and continuing through Halloween, weekends kick into high gear at Pumpkinland.

Barott says the Pumpkinland focus is on kids, entertainment and agriculture. He calls the blend “agtainment.” In addition to scenic covered wagon rides by the river, Pumpkinland will also offer people a chance to catapult a pumpkin or a watermelon into the river. (Hint: Barott says watermelons fly better.)

Additionally, there is a corn maze, a haunted walking trail, a petting zoo, face painting and a game room that includes candle-making. Some of the games offer pumpkins as prizes.