At the Fruit Farm

We have been intending to drive out to Delaplane to visit a pick your own fruit farm since the start of the season - on Sunday we finally made it.

Despite the relative remoteness of its location, this farm receives many visitors from the soft fruit season right through the cherry and peach season to now, where the main crops are apples and of course pumpkins.  A variety of vegetables - including the peanuts or ground nuts from yesterday's blog are grown throughout the year too.

A variety of advertisements in press and social media bring in the 'pickers' from Washington DC and all over Northern Virginia and the posted rules (hopefully) keep everyone on track.

We picked a mixed bag of apples - sold by the peck.  Some familiar varieties and others that are new to me.  All rather large!

As for the pumpkins, they looked very attractive and there were also quite a variety of different squash..

I chose three small squash (as I thought) with memories of the Golden Nuggets that Mum used to grow.  

When I got to the weighing station, however, I was told that they are gourds and hence more suited to Fall decoration than eating.  Never mind!  The unusually shaped one is called 'Crown of Thorns'.

The weighing station was set up to cope with considerably larger pumpkins!