Mr. Eric Cox

"We're welcoming our third generation of visitors by now," said Gina Richard, wife of Cox Farms founder Eric Cox.

Eric Cox of Cox Farms, credits the fame of his 116-acre Centreville, Va., operation to its Fall Festival, which offers hayrides, fresh cider and a pumpkin patch, as well as other seasonal entertainment.

Eric Cox was 18 years old and, in his words, "not academically inclined."So, the Reston teenager and his older brother rented 40 acres of farmland to grow and sell produce.

"This was at the peak of hippie times," recalls Mr. Cox, now 53."We figured, we can make a living at this."

On a recent day in October - more than 30 years later - Mr. Cox is perched on a Virginia hillside covered with hay and pumpkins.He looks out at the sunny 116-acre spread in Centreville that has been Cox Farms since he moved there in the late 1970s.The sound of children shouting and footsteps on gravel carries through the air.

"I think it's programmed into our DNA; people want to get out," says Mr. Cox, clad in a red Cox Farms sweatshirt, blue jeans and dusty sneakers.

Cox Farms has become a local institution thanks to its imaginative Fall Festival.For six weeks each year, a hayride, rope swings, slides, tunnels, pumpkin pie, cider, piglets, goats and exhaustive decorations transform the property into a Halloween wonderland.

But Mr. Cox says he never envisioned the annual production, which draws thousands of visitors from the Washington region each day.

"In 1979, we had our first field trips," he says.

Holtorf grows about half of the pumpkins they use and for the remaining half, they depend on the "very generous" donations from Eric Cox of Cox Farms.