Last weekend a friend generously offered her cabin on Whidbey Island to us. What a gift to spend one of the last blue sky weekends in a spot that overlooks Puget Sound and is down the road from Ft. Ebey, a state park with bluffs that provide sweeping views of the Olympics and trails that wind through big trees.

We cooked, wrote, lounged, hiked, and read. And we really didn’t want to leave.

So at 3:30pm on Sunday we had a funny conversation.

“I don’t want to leave. Do we really have to go home?”

“What if we just stayed one more night? I’m sure there’s an early morning ferry.”

Neither of us needed much convincing. We had, though, eaten most of the food that we brought or bought at the farmer’s market. A quick google search identified a pumpkin patch just down the road that was opened until 4pm. I knew that we could find something at the pumpkin patch to cook for dinner.

What a find! Sherman’s Pioneer Farm grows many types of squash including huge Blue Hubbard squash. We opted for delicate and butternut – less hacking required. They had the standard pumpkin selection, tractor ride, cute cows, and funny murals on plywood with face holes (are they required for a farm with visitors?). Ms. Sherman rang us up and we chatted briefly about their farm and the Puget Sound Food Hub, one of the local small farm food aggregators.

We were giddy with the thrill of a bold decision not to go home (yet) and serendipity that allowed us a few more hours on the island and at a farm. I think the circumstances made the rice dish with apricots, pistachios, and roasted squash that we cooked later in the evening especially delicious. Good decisions all around!