Halloween is but days away, and Inside Sonoma is frantically trying to find the perfect sexy nurse/fireperson/zombie/actuary costume that is always in vogue.
Costumes aside, the big question is, why is there always a big traffic jam in front of the pumpkin patch in Petaluma?
Locals know all about it- you crest the Cotati grade on 101 south and you hit a line of cars just outside of Petaluma. You nudge through for 15 minutes only to discover that everyone is slowing down not for an accident, or road construction, or even a sexy actuary, but the Petaluma Pumpkin Patch.
It’s not that Sonoma County residents, living our fabulous wine country lives in our fabulous wine country villas situated in our fabulous wine country towns, have never seen a pumpkin. Heck, we’re up to our eyeballs in locavore organic gourds in the fall, and Linus and the Great Pumpkin were dreamed up right here in Sonoma County.
No, the truth of the matter is far more distrubing that that.
Next to the Pumpkin Patch is planted a field of something called “corn,” which evidently is quite common in other parts of the United States.
Ask any kid in Windsor or Healdsburg or Petaluma the difference between a merlot grape and a pinot noir grape, and they’ll immediately tell you “about 1600 bucks a ton.” And then they’ll enter into a discussion of trellising practices, dry farming versus irrigation, and end with a spirited discussion on riparian corridors and salmonids.
But ask them about corn, the invader crop that often gobbles up entire Midwestern towns and, which it is rumored, South Dakotans ritually pledge obedience to, and they will likely look at you as if you just asked for directions to Napa.
Grapes, exotic"corn", and the natural progression - John Barleycorn. Corn is often called a "gateway grain" by agronomists.
So worry not, Sonoma County. Halloween will soon be gone, the sexy actuary costume will go back in the closet next to the naughty Santa one, and the terrifying attack of corn will soon be repelled by the natural progression of the seasons, and a tractor.
