Flannel's back out, and this one's got a festival built around the most unexpected star ingredient we've covered yet.
Four days in Pennsylvania's Brandywine Valley, timed around a mushroom festival that draws over 100,000 people to a town most people have never heard of — Kennett Square grows nearly two-thirds of the mushrooms sold in the entire country, and once a year they turn that into a full weekend of chef competitions, mushroom soup on every corner, and a countryside covered in fall color. It's the kind of "wait, that's a real thing?" trip that makes for a genuinely great story afterward.
Your Itinerary
Day 1 — Arrive Friday and settle into the valley.
Check into a Kennett Square-area inn or B&B — the walkable downtown puts you close to festival grounds
Grab dinner at a local spot downtown before the crowds arrive Saturday
Day 2 — Festival day one.
Spend the day at the Mushroom Festival — chef demos, the "Chopped"-style mushroom cooking competition, and a mushroom growing exhibit that walks you through spore to harvest
Try the festival's signature mushroom soup, made fresh with local portabellas
Day 3 — Festival day two, then Longwood Gardens.
Catch the festival's second day before it wraps up Sunday afternoon
Spend the rest of the day at Longwood Gardens — one of the country's great public gardens, with fountains, a massive conservatory, and fall color throughout the grounds
Day 4 — A slow drive through wine and covered-bridge country before heading home.
Drive the back roads of the Brandywine Valley, past historic covered bridges most GPS routes skip entirely
Stop at a local winery like Chaddsford Winery for a tasting before the trip home
However your family takes its fall — festival crowds or quiet back roads — hit reply and tell me what's calling your name this season.
Your Weekend Passport Planner,
- Josh
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