Burt’s Pumpkin Farm, Dawsonville, Georgia

“Let’s be honest: you can’t celebrate fall without it’s leading role – Pumpkin! You can incorporate this flavor of the season in so many ways, from candles to lattes, pies to decorations.”

Rachel Hollis

Today's plan was to head to Dawsonville, Georgia to see the Faucett’s Sunflower Farm and Burt’s Pumpkin Farm. Burt’s is right down the road from Faucett’s so it was easy to find. We pulled in the parking lot and realized this place was huge and quite the attraction. There were loads of people there and after we enter the store we could see why. The store itself was quite the adventure selling all kinds of items inside like jams and jellies, boiled peanuts (a southern favorite and if you’ve never tried them, it is such a treat), homemade soaps, freshly made pumpkin pies and pumpkin rolls, popcorn, candles, lattes, and lovely fall decorations. You could spend a lot of time just in the store.

When we walked to the back to see the pumpkins, we first noticed two sheds. One was loaded with hay bales for sale, the other had fresh corn stalks with ears of corn still on it. They were beautiful and I had never seen nicer corn stalks ever. They also had a stand that had cute scarecrows and other fall decorations like happy ghosts you could buy. Then we turned towards where all the pumpkins were. Wow. It was so impressive with an unbelievable amount of pumpkins from the regular orange variety to Ghost pumpkins that are all white. They had them situated in rows and it looked amazing. They had some very large pumpkins you could buy up to over a hundred pounds.

It was great fun watching all the kids run around looking at them all and picking out the one special one for them. We heard one grandfather tell his grandson to pick out one. His grandson picked up the smallest one in the field. His grandfather said that he could get a bigger one than that. His eyes just gleamed with excitement as he continued to search for the perfect one.

Then we walked over to where there was a platform and a line of people. We asked and it was the line to take a tractor ride. During the busy times they run ten tractors with trailer to keep the lines smaller. The ride goes two miles and you get to travel to see the pumpkin fields and even get a great view of Amicolola Falls.

You can definitely find your perfect pumpkin while you are here whether tiny or humongous. They also sell, squash, gourds, Indian Corn, and some things that were unidentifiable to us. Very fun looking at all their produce. We enjoyed watching families picking up their pumpkins and pushing them around in the wheelbarrow supplied by Burt’s. Everyone seem excited about picking up their cherished addition to their fall decor.  Before we left we picked out our cornstalks to display for our annual chili cook off that we have every fall. 

A little history about this fabulous fall destination. I love their history as it starts with John Crane in the 1800’s and was the patriarch of the family who traveled from South Carolina and fell in love with this property and bought it. At that time the land also included what is now the Amicolola Falls State Park. Later the land when to his heir, Bartley Crane. Well, old Bartley had a still but didn’t want to pay the taxes on the whiskey he made and sold and kind of refused to pay them, so the Federal Government confiscated the land.

Bartley later owned a country store, that later went to his heir Hunt Crane. This land went through many generations and now is owned by Johnny Burt (Hunts Grandson) and his wife Kathy. They started growing pumpkins in 1972 from a road side stand right on their property. Now they have 50 to 70 acres of pumpkins they harvest every year.

This is a great place to stop. It will now be a yearly trip for us and a new amazing tradition. It really puts you in the mood for fall. If you can, go to see Burt’s Pumpkin Farm. They are open daily between 9 and 6. Check them out at: www.burtsfarm.com.