Adventures with Fergus: Pumpkins at Hollin Farms

Fergus takes a tour of the Hollin Farms Pick-your-own pumpkin patch -- the largest in Northern Virginia. Ten acres of corn maze and pumpkins. Also fall garden greens for pick your own. Fergus is a Fells Terrier. For another adventure see youtu.be

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Planting potatoes with tree planter

Planting potatoes on Hollin Farms with tree planter. The tree planter plows open a furrow and the potatoes pieces are dropped into the earth. The furrow is closed by two heavy duty tires that push the earth back together. We are planting nearly 800 pounds for dig-your-own next to the peach orchard. This year some of the potatoes are red ones from the high Andes region in Bolivia and Peru. Virginia Young Farmer of the year, Matthew Davenport explains.

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Flowers: Robert and Elizabeth Davenport

"Flowers" is a 16mm film I made in the late 1960s, during the Vietnam War. It features my father and mother Robert and Elizabeth Davenport. My father Robert C Davenport was born in Norfork, NB in 1905 and moved to the DC area with the New Deal. Robert C. Davenport conceived and built Hollin Hills, a well known community of contemporary houses south of Alexandria, Virginia. My mother was born in 1906, the daughter of Hungarian immigrants from South Bend, Indiana. She helped my father with Hollin Hills as a secretary. My parents bought a 1000 acre farm in the Crooked Run Valley between Delaplane and Paris Virginia in the early 1950 when land here was $50 an acre. They retired to the farm which they had named Hollin and my father raised registered Angus cattle, specializing in selling bulls for commercial herds. Both Elizabeth and Robert are buried in the cemetery at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Delaplane, VA.

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Feeding Hay in February

Matt Davenport unrolls large round bales on the hill side of Hollin Farms. The bales weigh around 1000 pounds. Spreading the hay out by rolling it is a better way of feeding round bales than leaving them unrolled in a field. The cattle trod the hay into the mud and waste alot. Rolling them down the hill is less wasteful and distributes the manure over the fields. My son Matthew is strong enough to push these bales by hand.

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