Autumn harvest observances date back thousands of years. But today's celebrations prove a far cry from the ancients' ceremonies. The rural rituals of 2005 fall under the term "agritourism," in which farmers creatively use their natural resources to promote fun and earn a living.
As winter nears, "people realize that for outdoor activities, it's sort of the last hurrah," says Todd Butler of Butler's Orchard, one of the area's many farms offering fall festivities.
Longtime area farms close every year, often because an owner retires with nobody wanting to take over a business that faces fluctuating, undependable income and increasing pressures from developers. Many owners stick around, however, thanks in part to the income generated by the public's eagerness to embrace tradition.
Every fall, city and suburban folks drive out to the farms to see barnyard animals, sample cider and choose odd-shaped gourds for their Thanksgiving table arrangements.
"We were the first ones in our area to do anything like this," says Wendy Wright of Hill High Farm in Winchester, Va., which found a new source of revenue by opening to the public 10 years ago. "It just grew each year."
Butler's, Hill High and four other locations described here -- including one marking its final season -- share a bond with dozens of area farms: Family-owned and -operated, they feature signature traditions that have kept people returning. Some offer activities that are as simple as selecting a pumpkin from the field, while others rival amusement parks. Down on the farm, you can kiss a pig while wearing wax lips or scare yourself silly in a haunted barn with 18 sound systems.
The following six farms provide a glimpse of the choices within an hour or so of the District. For more destinations, see the list of farms on Page 33.
Milestone in Rural Montgomery
Picture Montgomery County: high-tech office buildings, congested thoroughfares and burgeoning development. But if you venture off Interstate 270 at Germantown and make a couple of turns, the image changes dramatically. You're tooling along a quiet, tree-lined country road. Round a bend, and there sits Butler's Orchard and Farm Market.
"For me, it's like, ahhhhhhh: You're out of the rat race," Todd Butler says of the feeling that washes over him when entering the rural enclave. Fifty-five years after parents George and Shirley Butler, fresh out of college, bought 37 acres, Todd and siblings Susan and Wade run the now 300-acre produce farm. George died five years ago, but Shirley still helps out in the store.
Butler's gradually expanded and added various seasonal crops, one of which grew into a popular tradition, the Butler's Orchard Pumpkin Festival. For a high school project, Todd started a pick-your-own pumpkin patch. A few years later, he attended a farm marketing conference, where a farmer talked about his fall Pumpkinland event. The idea clicked with the Butlers, who asked their foreman to create some characters out of stacked pumpkins and gourds. Then the family added a handful of activities.
"It was one day, a Saturday, in October," Butler recalls. "The next year, we went to one weekend."
Now marking its 25th anniversary, the event has grown to one of the largest of its kind in suburban Maryland. Thousands of people visit every October weekend and Columbus Day to pick pumpkins and enjoy various family-oriented goings-on around the spacious farmland behind Butler's market.
