Fall brings cool days, fun times at the pumpkin patch

AUTUMN means pumpkins for picking and other fall fun. You can make a family day of it, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday through Sunday at Martin Vineyards at 213 Martin Farms Lane on Knotts Island, N.C. You can pick your own pumpkins, scuppernong grapes, green beans and apples, and bring home wine from the winery, which will be open.

You can find pick-your-own pumpkins, shell-your-own popcorn, fall decorations and horse-drawn hayrides at Brookdale Farm's Chesapeake fields at 2133 Mount Pleasant Road. Brookdale is open Saturdays and Sundays in October. Call (757) 721-0558 or visit www.brookdale-farm.com.

Also, the pick-your-own pumpkin patch and market at College Run Farms, 2051 Alliance Road in Surry, will be open 9 a.m to 1 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays in October. Call (757) 294-3970 or www.collegerunfarms.com.

MARKET ON THE  MOVE

Find the Old Beach Farmers Market from Croc's 19th Street Bistro in Virginia Beach in a new spot - at East Beach, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday. The one-time-only East Beach Farmers Market will be held in the Norfolk neighborhood off Shore Drive and Pretty Lake Avenue.

Vendors will include Old Town Seafood and Mattawoman Creek Farms, both from the Eastern Shore. Virginia Beach growers on hand will include Flanagan Farm, Cromwell's Produce and New Earth Farm. Tasha's Own Goat's Milk Soap, also from Virginia Beach, will bring not only their soaps, but also Tasha the goat.

VEGGIES AND MORE

Cindy's Produce on Harpers Road near Oceana in Virginia Beach still has peppers, eggplants and okra. They also are picking acorn and butternut squash along with decorative gourds on their Pungo farm. Call (757) 427-2346 for updates.

HAM AND MORE

Windhaven Farm Natural Angus Beef in Windsor has three new cuts of meat available - kabob meat, fajita meat and cube steak. Windhaven also will have country-smoked hams this year. The farm's market on Pope Swamp Trail is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays. For information on other ways to purchase beef, call (757) 209-1095 or visit www.windhavennaturalangusbeef.com.

Mary Reid Barrow, barrow1@cox.net