The Pumpkin ride started many years ago. It’s started when the Lakeside Bicycle Association did bicycle tours. A member (Bill) had a cousin who had a Pumpkin Farm south of Edinboro started the ride back in the early 90′s.
I did it for a number of years with the Erie Outing club; but then Finneys Pumpkinville decided to shut down because they couldn’t compete with Wal-Mart. So I quit doing the ride too.
But Paul W decided to keep it going and put it into the Calendar. We met at the County Y near Edinboro at 10:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning. Paul, Ray and I met their. We took some low traffic country roads to the Edinboro University. Then we follow the Quad course to Finney’s.
Now that Finney’s Pumpkinville is shutdown; the only part of it is left is a Deli & Bulk food Store. In the store you will find many varieties of bulk foods and bake goods. I bought some chocolate covered peanuts, Paul bought a scone and Ray had a chocolate Cookie.
We then went south on Route 99 toward Tobin Pumpkin Farm. Tobin Pumpkin Farm is own by the cousin of Bill’s from the Lakeside Bicycling Association. You have to ride down a rough road to get to the farm. But once you get there, you see that it was worth the effort. They have many varieties of fruits and vegetables for sale. In front of the house you can see all the pumpkins they have for sale. They told me “they don’t worry about competing Walmat because people who go to Wal-Mart for pumpkin don’t go to farms for their pumpkins.”
A short distant from Tobin’s Pumpkin Farm is the Cider Mill. The Cider Mill doesn’t make cider anymore. It is more of a variety gift Store, and they also sell cider and jams. Penny is the owner, who is also a dairy Farmer. She runs the Cider Mill, milk cows , and she also is a teacher at a local Christian school.
Then we took Fry Road to the Buffalo Farm. Fry road has three nice hills to climb, but the view of the farmland ‘s make it worth it. The Buffalo Farm was busy. Many people were there because of the Corn Maze. A Mercyhurst Laker’s bus pulled up while we were there.
Paul , Ray and I enjoy some Bison Burgers; but it took a little while to get waited on because it was so Busy.
After we ate,Paul had to leave to work on his sail Boat, But Ray and I stayed and went through the Corn Maze. It was muddy in spots, but was interesting to walk through. You had to find different mail boxes in the maze, and you had to take a sticker out of the boxes and put them on your map. We only found two mailboxes while we were there.
The day started out cold, but got warmer as the day went on. It was a nice way to spend the day out in the county, and get away from city life.
