Halloween harvest

Fall is the busiest time of year for Cheryl Nodar. For the tour coordinator for Sharp’s at Waterford Farm in Brookeville, Md., the fall harvest’s bounty of school field trips can verge on the overwhelming.

Today, she is expecting about 1,000 preschool and elementary students — along with their teachers and some parents.

The heavy traffic is typical of the week before Halloween. The farm also is catching up on tours canceled last week because of the soggy weather.

On this crisp fall morning, the sun is beaming for the first time in days, although through patchy clouds.

“The weather has a lot to do with people’s attitudes,” Ms. Nodar said.

She just knew this day was going to be good.

Ms. Nodar, 54, got to the farm about 8 a.m. and began displaying the store’s merchandise, which ranges from pumpkins, gourds and apples to pies, salsa and butter.

She straightens up and makes sure the shelves are fully stocked. She cleans the counter and the table where each tour group will register.

In 2002, Ms. Nodar began working at Sharp’s, which is a family-run farm on about 580 acres in western Howard County.

She worked at Cider Mill Farm in Elkridge for 12 years before it was sold in 2001. She is used to the busy fall season.

About 600 children, teachers and parents are scheduled to arrive between 9:15 a.m. and 10 a.m. The morning is always an “intense part of the day,” Ms. Nodar said as she clips a walkie-talkie to her belt.

Before the farm opens, it is quiet with just the sounds of chickens and goats.

Then Ms. Nodar, along with the farm’s other employees, wait for the arrival of this day’s scheduled tour groups.

And they wait. The first group of 60 students is late.

Five minutes late.

Ten minutes late.

Twenty minutes late.

Finally, 30 minutes after their scheduled arrival, buses carrying the first group drive down the long dirt road. At the top of the hill, more buses and cars are piling in. The other morning tours are arriving too — on time.

Ms. Nodar takes a deep breath. She knows she will be running nonstop for the next couple of hours.

Almost instantly the farm is bustling with eager children.

With her clipboard in hand, Ms. Nodar greets each group, registers them and collects their payment. She directs them to different parts of the farm. The tours consist of a miniature corn maze, a hayride, animal feeding, and corn and pumpkin picking.

There are plenty of pumpkins for the children. About 10,000 are left in the field. That is down from 60,000 at the start of the season, said Chuck Sharp, who owns part of the farm with his wife, Denise.

Ms. Nodar leads one group of excited preschoolers to the pigpen and gives them an impromptu lesson about the swine. She is waiting for another employee to finish with a group that is feeding the animals.

The children listen intently as they learn about the pigs. They are excited and eager to answer Ms. Nodar’s questions. When the children feeding the sheep are finished, Ms. Nodar directs the preschoolers to their next adventure.

Ms. Nodar uses her walkie-talkie to communicate with the rest of the crew. She makes sure each of the tours has an employee to direct and help the children.

Students are scattered throughout the farm. An older group goes to a classroom to learn about beehives. Another group finds its way through the corn maze, while others are searching for their perfect pumpkin.

Ms. Nodar has her eye on every group. At any given time, she knows exactly what school or organization is where on the farm. She accommodates each group as if it were the only one on the farm.

At 10:30 a.m. Ms. Nodar takes a sip of soda during a five-minute lull in activity. But before long, Mr. Sharp motions to her that three more buses are on their way down from the top of the hill.

By 11 a.m., several groups are ready for a hayride. Ms. Nodar doesn’t want the children to wait, so she gets onto one of the tractors and pulls the packed wagons through the fields.

“You just do whatever you have to do,” she said. “There’s no set job description here.”

By noon, nearly 900 people have passed through the farm. The afternoon would be much quieter with just a few small groups scheduled for tours.

Ms. Nodar spends the rest of the afternoon cleaning up and getting ready for another 900 visitors the next day.

After Halloween, Sharp’s will begin its Pilgrim history tour — a program Ms. Nodar created at Cider Mill Farm and started at Sharp’s — in which guides dressed in period costume focus on the daily life of a Pilgrim family.

The program, which lasts through Nov. 19, attracts about 500 people a day.