MACON, Ga. — Fall is here and Stratford Academy is celebrating with its 4th annual glass pumpkin patch.
Typically, the pumpkin patch is one of many events the academy holds for its Celebrating ART week.
However, due to the pandemic, the patch will be the only event occurring this year.
Because of COVID-19, Stratford had to hold off on their traditional live glassblowing demonstrations from local glassblower Devan Cole.
"We just weren't able to do that this year, but keep your fingers crossed that that will all come back next year," says Celebrating ART liaison Kathleen Medlin.
Even though things look a little different this year, the patch still drew a crowd on its opening day, and with over 500 unique pumpkins to choose from, visitors had a lot of shopping to do.
For repeat shopper and former Stratford teacher Sloan Walthall, the return of the patch gave her one more opportunity to add to her collection of glass pumpkins.
"I love to see all of the different pumpkins," says Walthall. "Every year, I get one for myself and then I like to give them as gifts to family members.... I try to get a different color every year."
Walthall has made a fall tradition out of visiting the pumpkin patch every time since their first event four years ago.
"It always feels like fall whenever the pumpkin patch opens," says Walthall.
For Medlin, her favorite part of the pumpkin patch is watching how much it's grown over the years.
"We started with 100 pumpkins that sold out in about 48 hours," says Medlin. "It's just grown every year and that's been fun to watch something start small and get bigger and bigger."
The patch features hand-blown art from several Southern glassblowers including Cole, Freddie Blache, Kelly Robertson, and John Shoemaker.
The pumpkin patch will be open to shopper from 9-4 pm everyday through Saturday, Oct. 24.