Annapolis Valley autumn sincerely great

Pumpkin king Howard Dill may be gone, but his legacy lives on at the family farm in Windsor. This $30 beauty is just waiting for someone to take it home.
Visitors at the Dill Farm in Windsor ogle the huge pumpkins in one of the many pumpkin patches.
This mammoth pumpkin isn’t for sale. You probably couldn’t get it home, even if you wanted it.
U-Picker in action.
How do you like them apples? (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)
Gates U-Pick in Port Williams is one of many u-picks in the Annapolis Valley.

(Click on any photo to view a larger version.)

If there were a place on this planet where autumn lasted year-round, I’d move there in a flash.

I’d spend all my days dressed in mittens and woolly sweaters, raking leaves and sipping hot apple cider.

Don’t get me wrong – I love a toasty summer day at the beach as much as the next person, but if I had a choice between lying on a towel in the sand and hiking along leaf-strewn paths, I’d pick the latter every time.

There’s hardly a better way to enjoy the season than by wandering around on back roads, admiring the coloured leaves and popping in at farm markets to pick up some local produce – unless you roll up your sleeves and get to work yourself.

Fortunately, there are plenty of farms in Nova Scotia that permit you to harvest your own food this time of year.

On a recent trip to the Valley, some friends and I stopped in at Gates U-Pick in Port Williams, where we loaded up on apples and a few remaining pears.

It took no time at all to fill our bags as we wandered through the rows of the orchard scouting out the most plump, most pristine specimens. (Not that there’s anything wrong with a few spots.)

You can also hop on a wagon ride for a tour of the farm, pick your own sunflowers or head out to the pumpkin patch to select your own.

We decided to save our pumpkin shopping for our visit to Nova Scotia’s pumpkin royalty: the Dill farm. If Linus van Pelt was correct that “Each year, the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch that he thinks is the most sincere, ” the Great Pumpkin must be familiar with this place.

It is, of course, the Windsor farm where world-renowned pumpkin whisperer Howard Dill coaxed his colossal cucurbits from the soil.

At the Dill farm, you can wander around the outskirts of the pumpkin patches, choose one from the precut pumpkins, or just ogle the swollen, misshapen, 1,088-pound monster that bulges over the edge of its pallet.

If you’re a true pumpkin lover, don’t leave without exploring the gift shop. You’ll find everything from pumpkin muffins and pumpkin-flavoured coffee to pumpkin earrings and pumpkin tuques.

Keep an eye out for Howard Dill’s many awards that line the walls, including a Lifetime Service and Achievement Award from the World Pumpkin Confederation and the Hall of Fame plaque he was awarded by a body called – yep – the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth.

I guess Linus was on to something after all.

IF YOU GO

• For an extensive list of U-picks in Nova Scotia, visit: http://bit.ly/158e3Hg. Although the list hasn’t been updated this year, it’s a good starting point.

• Call first to ensure that the U-pick is open and has what you’re looking for.

• Carry cash in case the operation isn’t equipped to handle debit/credit cards.

• Some farms offer unsprayed and organic sections.

• For something a little different, pick some cranberries at Terra Beata Cranberry Farm on Heckmans Island in Lunenburg County.

This article appeared originally in The Chronicle Herald.