Cox Farms Pumpkin Festival, Centreville, Virginia, October 2000. Photo: Cindy Ott. 

Pumpkins Revive Small Farms   

Cox Farms, located in Centreville, Virginia, began its pumpkin festival in 1983 and it is now one of the most popular fall tourist attractions in the Washington, D.C. area.  The Cox family is one of thousands of small family farms to convert some of their land into pumpkin wonderlands every autumn.  “It is not something we grow to sell,” stated one California pumpkin farmer, “but something we grow to bring happiness.”