Philadelphia with mushrooms, it’s delicious

If you drive west from Philadelphia and follow the Delaware River you will, after about an hour or so, be delivered into Brandy Wine Valley.

A picturesque cornucopia of virtually all things that are bright and beautiful. The transformation between city and country could not be starker or indeed more refreshing as the general flora, fauna and folks take on a decidedly rural feel as do the size of the roads and the amount of traffic.

If it wasn’t for the fact you were 5,000 miles from home you would half expect Adge Cutler and the Wurzels to be performing on the street corners.

Each small town you pass through has its own individual mix of shops, restaurants and support services for the very extensive agricultural sector that utilises much of this fertile land. You have arrived! This is small town USA.

Small town land it maybe but behind the hedgerows, hidden in the trees, down the main streets and secreted in the parks you will find hidden gems and an enormous amount to amuse, educate and entertain.

My first port of call was to my accommodation which appeared typical of the region as it was a farm house but not an ordinary one. This one had fabulous rooms, fresh water swimming pool, an honesty bar and acres of land to explore with a fair amount of wildlife roaming around. This was after all an M and S farmhouse – a Magnificent Smallholding.

Near to the farm is Kennett Square, a small but charming town with a typical main street drag with maybe thirty to forty independent shops, cafes and stores. Kennet Square is known as the Mushroom capital of the world given that the local farmers grow over a million pounds of them each week. The annual festival, held in early September, is so popular that at certain times there is not much room (geddit?). Mushrooms are so dominant that even the local ice cream is made of them.

A very short drive from fungi central you come across Longwood Gardens "where garden design, horticulture, education, and the arts interplay to inspire and enlighten". It is difficult to disagree.

A stroll around the estate will give an insight into what one can do when linking nature and the arts as each every display has a distinctive creative angle. During the July to October period the gardens open in the evening for Nightscape when a combination of music and lights turn the whole gardens into one enormous performance spectacle.

After a restful night and a spectacular breakfast I visited the Brandy Wine River Museum and once again a surprise waited with the quality of the content therein. The Museum features a comprehensive range of American art but is probably best known for the work of N. C. Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth and Jamie Wyeth. The Wyeth family are better known in the USA than they are in Europe but more is the pity as each generation of the family has produced masterpieces of work each with a different style and interpretation. From portraits of the Kennedy’s to the latest ‘through the door’ series featuring personalities such as Andy Warhol the Wyeth’s have covered them all.

You come out to the countryside thinking you are in for nothing more than coffee and cake but in Brandy Wine Valley nothing could be further from the truth.

Graham stayed at the Inn at WhiteWing Farm