Stephanie Timm, Paul Stetler and their son, Hayes, head home after a visit to Oxbow. Photo by Anne Laughlin Located off Highway 203, between Duvall and Carnation, Oxbow Farm’s entrance is announced with a large orange pumpkin sign. Follow the signs to parking and walk the gravel road past rows of flowers, orchards teeming with pears and apples, and ponds, including Oxbow Lake for which the farm is named.

During the week, now through the first week of November, Oxbow teaches schools about growing food and the workings of a farm. Farm tours are up from last year. Some days the farm will host four tours which is double the typical number. On weekends, the farm invites the general public to wander the pumpkin patch or play in the Living Playground, a section of land that has been dedicated to fun and educational activities. Children enjoy sitting on a real tractor, running through a tunnel made of gourds and vines, checking out the ‘creepy teepee’ of worm bins and more. Parents will enjoy the colorful display of vegetables and gourds, carrots in three colors, beets and Swiss chard.

Dan Kelln of Fall City, headed home with produce and a pie pumpkin. Photo by Anne Laughlin The Trent family from Seattle passed us as we headed up to the farm. Parents Barbara and Michael walked with Liv, a one and a half-year-old who was “breaking in her pink kitty boots” in the puddles. Liv had chosen a uniquely-shaped gourd with what looked like a French chapeau on top. It was definitely not a carving pumpkin but, her parents explained, it was what she could carry out by herself. And she had chosen it - that’s what mattered.

Dan Kelln of Fall City said it was his first time to Oxbow Farm with his children. “It’s a relaxing, comforting time of year,” he said about fall harvest. “And busy, too.”

Sara Cassidy manages Oxbow Farm with her husband, Luke. Sara is excited that the farm has been able to produce “diplomats of the farm” in the children who visit with their classes and then take the experience home to their parents. It often generates a repeat visit, she said. Oxbow also visits school cafeterias in the Riverview School District to provide fresh produce on the Taste of Washington Day.

And, when fall harvest fades into winter, Oxbow will teach people about the activity that continues, even when the farm seems to be in hibernation.

Sara’s enthusiasm is part of what makes the experience so worthwhile. And she is just as enthralled with the kids who visit her farm as they are with her. “This is a place where the imagination can grow,” she said. She watched as a group of Girl Scouts climbed on the tractor and cheered as if they were taking off down the corn rows. She has discovered where a child lined up a family of ‘gourd dolls’ deep inside the tunnel.

The farm gives children the chance to pick their own produce side by side with the people who are growing it. They are learning through interaction.

“People are looking for a real farm experience,” she said. And, despite what was an “insane - nothing but rain” growing season, Sara’s excited about how robust the harvest has been. Even the gourd tunnel looked like it would never grow but then, after a few weeks of warm weather in September, the vines coated the trellis and it has surpassed last year’s tunnel already.

At the produce stand, we asked

Sarah about the small, round yellow... fruits?

“Those are lemon cucumbers,” she smiled. “They never get bitter and they make great cucumber water.” Or, you can just rub off the prickly part of the skin and eat it like you would an apple, she added.

She also showed us Lady Godiva pumpkins. “They’re easy to cook or turn into pumpkin butter,” she said. And then she pointed to her favorite pumpkin variety, the Galeux d’Elysenes, a “warty” variety that is catching on in popularity.

As we left Oxbow, we captured a photo of a family from Seattle, the picture worth a thousand words

(above). Stephanie Timm, Paul

Stetler and their son, Hayes (2) and the family dog, headed home with a perfectly round pumpkin, smiles and good memories. Like many families, they told us they were already planning to come back again next weekend.

Visit www.oxbow.org for more information.