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Pumpkins take center stage in Cox Farms in Centreville Date published: 10/23/2008
by carden hedelt Since 1972, Centreville's Cox Farms has offered produce from pumpkins to peppers. The Fairfax County farm's most famous offering is its annual Fall Festival, currently under way and offering fun for all ages. "We're welcoming our third generation of visitors by now," said Gina Richard, wife of Cox Farms founder Eric Cox. "It's enough to make you feel old, but we love being part of this community." The Fall Festival started as hayrides around the Cox family farm in 1981 and has grown to offer five giant slides, unlimited hayrides for all visitors and a corn maze called CORNundrum, a new offering for this fall's event. "We always try to find something new and exciting for every year, and the CORNundrum maze is our newest attraction," Richard said. "We're using over 90 acres of the farm this year because we have so much going on." According to Richard, this year's Fall Festival has already set a record for attendance thanks to good weather and the recent economic slowdown. "It's no secret that people in Northern Virginia are looking for cheap weekend entertainment right now, and that's helping our cause," Richard said. "We're also seeing people from places like Prince William and other counties that used to be rural areas that are traveling into Northern Virginia to visit our farm." The Fall Festival runs until Nov. 4 and ends with Pumpkin Madness, an event that lets visitors bring their jack-o-lanterns to the festival and dispose of them. In past years, visitors have been able to drop their pumpkins from heights, toss them into shredders and fling them into the Cox pond with a catapult. This year's Pumpkin Madness promises more pumpkin destruction than years past, thanks to a 1,007-pound giant pumpkin, the blue ribbon winner at Virginia's State Fair. "I can't say how, but that pumpkin is going to meet its end," Richard said. "We're still planning it, but we're going to make it as exciting as possible."
Date published: 10/23/2008
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