hello, fall

On Sunday, my parents and I drove down to Culpeper, VA to visit my brother (who drove up/east from Charlottesville) and go to a flower farm they'd read about.  I was along for the ride, and the food.  Well, the farm was closed, so we got hopelessly lost on country roads and stumbled upon a pumpkin patch instead. Sometimes I forget, living in the suburban/urban mess that is Northern Virginia, how gorgeous the rest of our state is.

We found our way onto Wilevington Farm, lured by the promise of pumpkins.

A woman greeted us as we hopped out of the car, and before we could catch them, the dogs tumbled out after us. The lady just laughed, and let them have the run of the place. To ensure that we knew just where the pumpkins came from, she led us around to the patch, as well, where lots of the orange beauties were still growing.

My mother picked out two pumpkins, and I honed in on an odd whitish one, different than I'd ever seen before. It didn't have a price on it. I asked the lady, who was letting my dad taste-test her pear butter, and she replied that she'd never seen one like it, either, and felt badly putting a price on it. So she let me have it for free. Finally, we snapped up a jar of strawberry preserves and a jar of pear butter (she also had pumpkin butter and apple butter) and headed for home.

It was the perfect way to welcome the season. Hello, fall.