The easiest way to get rid of a spent jack-o'-lantern in Bernards Township runs through a pig pen in Liberty Corner. That pen is still there because in 2008 the township paid to make sure English Farm could never become anything but a farm.
On Saturday, Nov. 7, Bernards Township holds its sixth annual Pumpkin Smash at English Farm, 3625 Valley Road, from noon to 1:30 p.m. It's free, it's open to all ages, and you don't need to register. Old Halloween pumpkins get smashed and fed to the farm's chickens and pigs. The event relies on two older township decisions, one about trash collection and one about preserving farmland.
A Pumpkin Has Fewer Exits Here Than in Most Towns
Bernards Township doesn't run municipal trash pickup. Households hire private haulers. The township's Pill Hill center takes leaves, brush and yard trimmings, but its list of items it won't accept includes food products and common household garbage. Pumpkins aren't named as an accepted item. Pill Hill also requires a permit. This fall it's open Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. through October and November, and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. starting in November.
For a porch full of softening gourds, that leaves two options. One is the hauler's bin, which ends in a landfill. The other is a farm that wants the pumpkins. English Farm makes its own pitch on its homepage: "Keep your Halloween pumpkins out of the landfill!"
The Farm on Valley Road Takes Them on Purpose
The Pumpkin Smash is run by the Bernards Township Agricultural Advisory Committee with the Environmental Commission. The farm's own listing also credits the township Health Department as a sponsor. Joe Sorge chairs the committee, and he summed up the appeal for TAPinto Basking Ridge:
"The event is great family fun, and the pumpkins are used as feed for the chickens and the pigs. It's a win-win."
The event usually handles more than 250 pumpkins. The township gave the same figure back in 2024, when the fourth edition ran on Nov. 2 and volunteers supervised the smashing. That's a lot of animal feed, which is why the rules come down to one question: can a pig eat it?
Before loading the car, check each pumpkin for:
- Candles and wax
- Stickers and googly eyes
- Plastic decorations of any kind
- Paint or glitter
The township's notice asks you to remove anything that isn't biodegradable, and says carved or whole pumpkins are both fine. You can bring as many as you like. The farm is stricter on one point: it asks only for pumpkins with no paint or glitter. A painted pumpkin should go somewhere else, even after you peel off the extras.
If Nov. 7 doesn't work for you, you can bring pumpkins to English Farm earlier that week while the farm is open.
Why There Is Still a Pig Pen on Valley Road
The Pumpkin Smash needs a working farm with livestock inside Bernards Township, and English Farm stayed one because of a deliberate public purchase.
The farm describes itself as family owned since about 1730. A local history of the property by Mr. Local History says James Theodore English bought the farm in 1840, after an earlier period under the Castner family, and counts nine generations of the English family on the land. The same history places the farm within Liberty Corner's historic district and says the land has been farmed continuously for more than 280 years.
The big change came in 2008. Bernards Township didn't buy the farm. It bought the development rights. A 2019 township planning report says the township used local money plus a cost share from Somerset County to preserve the farm. According to Mr. Local History, then-Mayor John Carpenter put the easement on roughly 81 acres at $9.7 million, with the township paying 60 percent and the county 40 percent. The easement legally requires the land to stay in agricultural use. Final approval came on Dec. 23, 2008, and it was the township's first farmland preservation project.
So the family still owns and runs the farm, and the public paid to keep it a farm for good. When Patch covered the township's proclamation at its Sept. 9, 2025 meeting, it identified Carol English as the owner. That proclamation honored English Farm as Bernards Township's longest continuously operating business.
The easement and the Pumpkin Smash are connected in a direct way. A township committee whose job includes supporting farmland preservation and public education about agriculture now runs a yearly event on the first farm the township preserved. Each pumpkin that lands in the pig pen gets a little use out of that 2008 easement.
The Farm Store Is the Reason to Go Back
The farm sells certified organic vegetables year-round. Its About page also lists organic flowers and hay. In December 2024, TAPinto Basking Ridge reported that the store had added Balthazar bread, local artisan goods, gift baskets, lamb and pork raised on the farm, and organic chicken, on top of its fresh eggs and local organic produce.
There are a few rules for visitors. You can see the animals after shopping, but only from designated visitor areas. The farm is closed to the public whenever the store is closed. The farm also asks visitors not to feed the animals. That makes the Pumpkin Smash the one organized time each year when residents help feed them, under the township's rules and with volunteers watching.
The farm's current posted hours, with this fall's other dates:
| What | When |
|---|---|
| Farm store | Thursday and Friday, noon to 4 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. |
| Pumpkin patch and maze | Opened Oct. 3 |
| Farm Friends Story Time | Thursdays, 10 to 11 a.m., through October; sign up in advance |
| Pumpkin Smash | Saturday, Nov. 7, noon to 1:30 p.m. |
The farm's website doesn't show when it was last updated, so check the hours before you make a special trip.
Two Weekends That Frame the Pumpkin's Last Stretch
The pumpkin's season starts a week before Halloween at Lord Stirling Park. On Sunday, Oct. 25, the Somerset County Park Commission holds its free Stalls, Sweets & Treats event at The Stable at Lord Stirling Park, 256 S. Maple Ave., from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Expect barn trick-or-treating, decorated horse stalls, horse costume contests and a hay maze. That's the early end of the season, while the pumpkins are still fresh on the steps.
Halloween falls on a Saturday this year. That gives a carved pumpkin exactly one week on the porch before the Nov. 7 smash. Here's how the next few weeks line up:
- Sunday, Oct. 25: Stalls, Sweets & Treats at The Stable at Lord Stirling Park.
- Saturday, Oct. 31: Halloween.
- Thursday, Nov. 5, and Friday, Nov. 6: English Farm store open noon to 4 p.m., for anyone dropping pumpkins off ahead of the event.
- Saturday, Nov. 7: Pumpkin Smash at English Farm, noon to 1:30 p.m.
Pull out the candles, skip the glittered ones, and plan on about 90 minutes on Valley Road that Saturday. If you have time, stop at the farm store before you leave.
If you'd like to talk through how a preserved farm, a historic district or a nearby open-space parcel figures into a home you're thinking of buying or selling in Bernards Township, Laura Hubert and Gina Rossomondo of The Power of 2 are happy to sit down with you. Schedule a consultation whenever it suits you.
