In keeping with the Halloween spirit, Mommy & Daddy took me to multiple pumpkin patches.
Each farm has a different feel — Stribling Farm has the best Fuji apples (along with about 13 types of other apples), wildflower honey and apple raisin bread. They also carry Rinker apple cider which is by far the best tasting cider there is. Daddy drools when he thinks about this cider ever since he bought it roadside en route to the Shenandoah Valley year. Hartland Farm has a man-made pumpkin patch and nice landscaped views. We went to both of these farms with Aunt Jo and Uncle Ken’s twin boys, Justin & Nicholas.
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By far, the best farm is Hollin Farm — they have the best pumpkin patch because the pumpkins were still on the vine and it boasts beautiful views of rolling hills. Hollin Farm also has a vegetable garden complete with bitter melon and Japanese eggplant. You can pick as much as you can fit in a “peck” bag and it costs $10 for the bag. They also have a “greens” field where you can pick bok choy, mustard and lettuce — all for $1.50 a pound. Wildflowers are also free for the picking.
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We got there too late for this, but if you’re up for it, they also have peanuts you can dig from the ground. Mommy & Daddy seemed really ignorant when they realized for the first time that peanuts grow underground and not on a tree! There is also a small petting area where kids could actually be in the same pen as a lamb family or chicken and ducks.
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For the bigger kids, there is even a free corn maze. So, it’s not surprising that we went to Hollin Farm two weekends in a row.
The first time, we went to Aunt Eva and Uncle Michael and their two girls, Zoe and Evie.
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The second time, we went with Aunt Holly, Uncle Dedo, Aunt Fanny (Aunt Holly’s sister) and her two sons, Joey and Chandler.
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Even Aunt Holly and Uncle Dedo got a little romantic in the flower field…
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Hollin Farm has strawberries and peaches, so we’ll definitely be there next summer!