Crooked Run Orchard

Sam and I would like to thank you, our neighbors, friends, and valued customers for your friendship, patronage, and constant support throughout this growing season. We enjoyed making so many new friends, as well as renewing old acquaintances.

Our struggles with the Town of Purcellville continue as we try to preserve our way of life and, more importantly, the invaluable contributions that our family farm makes to the lives of so many people near and far.

We look forward to seeing you next spring! In the meantime, our farm stand will be open throughout the winter months from dawn til dusk with a variety of local items for you to enjoy.

Uta & Sam Brown

On our last weekend of PYO we will be picking pumpkins in the pumpkin patch. Our PYO apples are all picked out, but we do have plenty of apples for sale at the stand. We’ve got  fancy gourds and culinary pumpkins for sale, too!

Apples are only $1.00 a pound, pumpkins are 45 cents/pound, and gourds vary from 2/$1.00 to 4/$1.00. There is never an admission fee and parking is always free! No dogs, please, due to sanitary reasons.

PYO is open from 9 to 5 on Saturday only – this will be our last day for PYO this season. Our farm stand is open daily all year round from dawn til dusk.

Our PYO will be open this weekend on Saturday and Sunday with  a wide variety of pumpkins available as well as the last of the season apples. Our farm stand is open from dawn til dusk, too!

We’ve got a very plentiful selection of pumpkins in the patch –  all varieties are just 45 cents a pound, including delicious culinary pumpkins like ‘Speckled Hound’.  Gourds vary a little in price, from 4/$1.00 to 2/$1.00 and we have a great selection.

PYO apples are getting thin, but it is still possible to find them for those who are prepared to look for them. This will likely be our last weekend for PYO apples.

Admission is free, parking is free, and we have a small picnic area for you to enjoy, too! We have porta-johns at the orchard entrance, which is always handy to know about. No dogs, please, due to sanitary reasons.

We will be closing our PYO stand this week from Monday through Friday and re-opening on Saturday, October 24th. Our farm stand will be open as usual from dawn to dusk with a variety of products. We look forward to seeing you on Saturday!

This weekend marks the Loudoun Farm Tour which we are once again very pleased to be a part of. This weekend we will be picking apples and pumpkins, and we’ll be offering interpretive hayrides at 12, 2, and 4 pm. The hayrides are free, weather permitting of course, and space is limited on a  first come, first served basis. We’ll have our fresh, unpasteurized raw cider for sale, too!

PYO apples are $1.00 per pound, and pumpkins are 45 cents per pound. Gourds vary in price from 4/$1.00 to 2/$1.00. We have a very good selection of sweet and hot peppers for picking, too, so be sure to grab these before the season ends.

Our farm stand is also open daily from dawn to dusk and features our fruit, as well as other local farm-made products.

Parking is free, and we never charge admission. Our hayrides are also free, but space is limited and we are only offering the hayrides this weekend. No dogs, please, due to sanitary reasons.

See you on the farm tour!

Whew! We have to attend to some farm business this week, so we’ll be closing the Pick Your Own on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Our farm stand will remain open from dawn til dusk daily.

We are gearing up for the Farm Tour Weekend this coming weekend, and we look forward to seeing you!

The other morning when I went down to open the Pick-Your-Own table, I was surprised to find a Gray Tree Frog (Hyla versicolor) sitting on my chair in the early morning light!

As the species name Hyla versicolor implies, gray tree frogs are highly variable in color owing to their ability to camouflage themselves from gray to green, depending on the substrate they are sitting on. The degree of mottling varies. They can change from nearly black to nearly white. They change colors more slowly than a chameleon.

It is quite rare to see these frogs in daylight, as they are primarily nocturnal, so this was a real treat. Gray tree frogs are primarily arboreal, spending time in wooded areas, usually not far from a permanent water source. On rainy evenings they can often be found calling in or near shallow, temporary pools of water, and often in swimming pools. They are nocturnal and insectivorous, consuming most any small arthropods they can catch. They will also eat algae if readily available. Mating occurs throughout the spring and summer months. Gray tree frogs can change the color of their integument from a light green to a gray; this ability is used as a form of crypsis, or blending into the immediate environment to avoid predation.

All frogs are extremely sensitive to environmental disturbances and contamination. We are quite pleased to have such a healthy population on our farm, as we do not use the common pesticides which cause declines in frog populations.

If you’d like to hear what these singing tree frogs sound like, click here.