It is the perfect time of year to enjoy the many farm stands and harvest festivals that showcase the bounty of late summer fruits and fall vegetables. There are corn mazes, pumpkin patches, open air markets and dozens of harvest fairs around the country.
My daughter and I had a fabulous outing together to the Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello in Charlottesville, VA. She seems to have inherited both my love of gardening and my husband’s love of cooking, so a harvest festival is perfect for her. We enjoyed watching chefs prepare dishes with local produce, eating fabulous hot cider donuts, buying garlic bulbs to plant in our garden this fall, and sampling a few of the dozen or so heirloom tomatoes on display. The diversity of vegetables and fruit was impressive and it reminded me that there are so many more varieties available than are offered at a typical supermarket. If you want to grow heirloom vegetables and fruits at home, look for seeds that have done well in your area. There’s really nothing as wonderful as a tomato grown in your own backyard.
Whether you set off on an adventure to a harvest festival or take a simple drive out to a local farm to buy a pumpkin, now’s a great time to enjoy an outing during the cooler days of fall.
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