Yesterday

We visited Ganyard Hills Farm in Durham, NC. It was awesome. The farm is owned by Milton Ganyard, a retired entomologist. For a single admission price ($12.50/person) you get a hay ride on a former tobacco wagon pulled by a John Deere tractor, one pumpkin from a pumpkin patch, as much cotton as you can pick, a corn maze, unlimited play on a humongous hay pile, pick-your-own-corn, and access to a hand-cranked old fashion machine to remove the corn kernels from the cob.

Yes, they have a real cotton patch. Including a couple rows planted a few weeks ago to show what the big patch looked like in July (young plants with flowers). Farmer Ganyard personally showed us the new plants, and talked about the different stages of bud-to-boll development. He also told us about his work with the US Department of Agriculture to eliminate the boll weevil from NC.

And the pumpkin patch is real pumpkin plants! Not the loose pumpkins set out in mowed grass field, like many of the area's "pumpkin patches." We found a single small orange pumpkin in a well-picked-over field.

I was so impressed with Milton Ganyard and his farm that I'm planning a homeschool trip for sometime in the next week or so.

http://www.ganyardhillfarm.com/