Thing 76: Cox Farms

I am in something of a panic, because this is the last of the Things in my back pocket, and it hasn't even been a week of NaBloPoMo...So, God help me, but there's gonna be something in this space tomorrow, just don't ask me what.

Actually, I've had this one in my back pocket for so long, that the season is now over. So, um, you all will have to wait another year for pumpkin mania at Cox Farms. The good news is that they are reopening later this month for Christmas themed festivities, including Christmas trees, wreaths, and Santa Claus! And if their Christmas festivities are anything like their celebration of the fall, then it will be completely over the top.


I know I've talked about how much I love summer, but there is really something amazing about fall, don't you think? Not only is it my birthday and Halloween, but butternuts and apples come into season, and I get to start wearing scarves again, which are my favorite accessory. The air smells woodsy and the nights are crisp.

October of last year, Jenny and I went to a pumpkin patch and bought a couple of pumpkins and came back to her apartment to eat apple butter, drink mulled wine and carve them into a little mini pumpkin play. Obviously, we needed to repeat that again this pumpkin season. Unfortunately, we couldn't remember where we'd gone last year, and after some Internet research, we decided that we must have gone to Cox Farms.


Boy were we wrong. Our pumpkin patch of last year was the amateur hour compared to the extravaganza awaiting us at Cox. Five slides! Hot cider! A twenty minute long hay ride that led us deep into the heart of darkness! A milking show! Piglets! Pumpkin Butter! Caramel apples and kettle corn! Cox is a fall lover's dream come true.

Boy, that hayride though was something else. I'm not a country girl, so for all I know, hayrides are supposed to be 20 minutes long and take you past live action aliens, Charlie Brown, Pokemon and Disney characters, the Clintons wearing beanies, safari animals and scary witches. We got "stuck in the mud" until "Farmer Big Head" came out and clapped his hands and set us free. We stopped in a "haunted barn" where the lights went out and flashing lights and loud music went off. The kids seemed to be enjoying it, which I suppose is the point, but Jenny was terrified and I was confused. See video below:


We also slid down a great big tall slide, holding hands and giggling all the way. We saw baby piglets, which were oh so cute and will taste so delicious in only a few months' time. And there was a milking show, where Farmer John brought out Bessie the Cow, on a stage, and showed people how to milk her, while the audience sat on bales of hay. Americans seem to long for a time when they were connected to the earth and their food supply, and are now reduced to reconnecting with these elements in a variety act. Oh, America. I love you so.


On our way out, we went through the country store, of course, where we could select one free baby pumpkin, and stock up on fancy gourds and seasonal preserves. Cox farms' pumpkin butter is amazing, and I have managed to eat my way through the entire jar and now must either make my own, or wait until they re-open for Christmas...

Which doesn't sound like such a bad idea to me.