Gordon Skagit Farms is Martha Stewart’s October feature

When Gordon Skagit Farms opens its Autumn Market next Monday, Sept 27, it may be a bit more crowded than usual.

The farm is featured in the October issue of Martha Stewart Living, perhaps the country’s most prominent lifestyle magazine. “Picks of the Patch” starts on page 68 and tells the story of Todd and Eddie Gordon’s journey from roadside hawkers of generic Halloween pumpkins to vendors of gorgeous, obscure, even ugly gourd and pumpkin varieties not meant to be carved at all.

Two years passed between the magazine’s first inquiry and the six-page spread in this month’s issue. “You don’t call them,” said co-owner Eddie Gordon. “They call you.”

There were many calls following photo shoots last October and November. Again and again, Gordon was grilled about specific varieties and the farm’s bonafides.

“They wanted to make sure we are who we say we are,” he explained, “that we aren’t part of a bigger corporation, and that this is really what we do for a living.”

The three-generation family farm passed muster. So did Gordon’s encyclopedic knowledge of cucurbitaceae, the botanical family of pumpkins and gourds.

They also met the magazine’s staff’s requirements for exclusivity. Annual coverage in Seattle media and profiles in magazines like Victoria and Garden Design – fine. A competing spread in another national lifestyle magazine this fall – not fine.

Everything in the article was shot on the farm by a Seattle-based photographer, with Gordon selecting varieties and composing displays.

It is a gorgeous layout, but curiously empty. There is not a hint of the tumult of a typical Sunday afternoon at the farm stand. There are no shots of people, paintings or the props that animate the barn and farmyard. Instead, the focus is on the varieties, which Gordon says is his focus, too.

The long process of collaboration energized and inspired Gordon. “I learned a lot about lights, composition and other details I never thought about until they honed in on them,” he said. “And I loved being part of the process, of working with encouraging professionals who kind of see where my dreams go, visually and in thought.”

For Eddie Gordon, this has been a life-changing experience. How will fame affect the farm and the rest of the Gordon family?

“I don’t know,” he said. “That is the mystery unfolding at the moment.”