What to Do, Eat & Explore This Week in Amelia County, Goochland & Western Virginia's Countryside

The Goochland Farmers Market sets up every Tuesday afternoon on the courthouse green at 1889 Sandy Hook Road, and these September sessions are some of the last of the year. Local farms bring the best of the season: sweet corn, late tomatoes and peppers, the first pumpkins and squash, plus pasture raised meats, farm eggs, honey, cut flowers and handmade goods. There is usually live music and a food truck on the green, which makes a perfect early evening routine. Shop the goods, let the kids run, and head home with the week planned.

Amelia's Barter Town Farmers Market gathers every Tuesday from 4:00 to 7:00 PM at the Amelia Fairgrounds on Five Forks Road, keeping the county's old trading tradition alive. The farmers bring produce, goat milk cheese, jams and preserves, grass fed beef and sausage, eggs, honey and plants. Come around 5:30 when every stall is going and the light turns golden across the grounds. It is friendly, unhurried and thoroughly local, and it is worth the drive from anywhere on this side of the James.

Goochland County's free Friday night concert series closes out the summer at the Old GES Field recreation area near the courthouse, and Friday, September 18 is one of the final evenings of the season. Live bands play as the sun drops, food trucks line the grass, and the whole county spreads out with blankets and lawn chairs. The county parks and recreation team posts each week's band on its summer concert calendar, and the show is free. It is small town Virginia at its very best.

The Rassawek Autumn Harvest Weekend is the biggest country festival on the west side of the region, and it returns to the vineyard at Columbia in mid October. Expect a real rodeo, live bands through the afternoon, food vendors, and this setting: river terrace vines rolling down toward the James. It is a friendly, wide open event that makes you feel like part of the county in an afternoon. Save October 17 and 18 now, and check the vineyard's page as the full lineup fills in.

Tanglewood Ordinary is a log cabin landmark on the James that has been serving family style country cooking since 1986. Think fried chicken, pot roast and cornbread passed around long tables, with banana pudding and cobbler to finish. It is exactly the kind of meal you hope to find at the end of a country drive, and the whole region knows it. Call ahead on weekends; the countryside fills up fast.

Easy's Kitchen and Bar on Court Street is where Amelia Court House lands for a good meal with real flavor. Steaks cooked right, generous sandwiches, home style sides and a friendly bar, all in a room where half the county says hello. Portions are comfortable and prices are fair. After a morning at the market or a long walk on the trail, it is exactly the kind of honest supper you are hoping for.

Namaw's Country Diner cooks the way the name promises. The name means grandmother, and that is exactly the mood: biscuits and sausage gravy, country ham, eggs any way for breakfast, meat and three lunches, and desserts that turn over with the season. It sits on Goodes Bridge Road in Amelia, the coffee stays hot and the welcome never runs low. Come early on a weekday or bring the whole family on Saturday.

Sunset Grill is Goochland's dependable night out: burgers, steaks, fried and grilled seafood, and a friendly regular crowd on Hockett Road. It is unpretentious and generous, the kind of place a family hears about in their first week of house hunting here. Dinner is always lively, and the first cool evenings of September are lovely at the big tables. If you are touring country properties all day, it is the easy, warm answer.

High Bridge Trail State Park is built on an old railroad bed, offering flat, easy trails for walking, cycling and horseback riding through miles of forest and farmland. Its crown is the old High Bridge itself, a long iron crossing high above the river valley that stops every first time visitor in their tracks. The trailheads near the county side make a family day simple, and September serves up cool mornings and the first hint of fall color. Pack water, helmets and a picnic; you will be glad you did.

A short drive south of Amelia Court House, the county's wildlife management land stays as quiet and green as any place this close to Richmond. Bank fishing for bream and bass on Amelia Lake, a gentle walking loop, and the deep woods all add up to a simple, unplugged day with the family. Primitive camping is available for the ambitious. Bring poles, a lunch, and nothing else: the quiet is the whole point.

Sailors' Creek Battlefield remembers the final chapters of the war fought at the end of the wilderness, and the state park keeps the story walkable and human: gentle trails, markers, and a small museum that tells a hard story with grace. It is one of the most moving places to bring a family in the region, and it sits right at the corner of the county. On a crisp September morning the fields are quiet, and the history is right under your feet.

Tucker's is one of the best pieces of public river in Virginia: a canoe and kayak launch straight onto the James, walking trails above the water, a compact archery range, and picnic tables where the whole bend opens up before you. Bring a kayak or just a bag of chairs and let the river do the rest. September gives you paddler friendly water in the morning and a golden river at dusk. Afterward, the country kitchens up the road make the perfect finish.

Leakes Mill Park is a hilly, wooded county park with miles of natural surface trail for walkers and mountain bikers, a small kayak launch, and a spot on the Virginia Birding and Wildlife Trail. The woods are airy and quiet midweek, when you may well have the ridge to yourself. It is small on name and big on happiness, the kind of park you return to with the family every single season. Pair it with a paddle and you have the whole day made.

Fort Barfoot, the Army installation at Blackstone, is less than half an hour from Amelia Court House and home to the Virginia National Guard's aviation community. It is a station that blends into the countryside around it: Blackstone is the walkable little town that supports the families, and the installation is in the middle of building a brand new MWR center at Blackstone Army Air Field, a real quality of life upgrade for soldiers and their families. If you are a veteran or military family weighing the quiet side of Central Virginia, the Barfoot corridor is one of the friendliest parts of the state, and September is a lovely time to visit and see it for yourself.

Every September, Fort Gregg-Adams holds its Run for the Fallen, a one mile family walk and a 5K across the installation that honors the service members we have lost and brings the whole base community together. Registration opens through the MWR website, and bib pickup happens in the days before the race at Army Community Services. The same month, the MWR calendar is full of the ordinary glue of base life: cosmic bowling on Fridays, Saturday story hours, and the fall season at the base theater. If this is your first September on the installation, the MWR calendar is the fastest way to find your people.

Few resources feel more like home to a military family than the USO. The Mid Atlantic USO keeps a steady weekly calendar of programs and drop in events around Central Virginia and the posts here, and their welcome centers are open to any service member, spouse or child who walks in. There is also the quiet backbone that many families discover later: every Virginia county keeps a veteran service officer, including Amelia and Goochland, to help with benefits and applications, free of charge. Do both, introduce yourself, and this countryside will fold you in before you know it.

Between Fort Barfoot and Fort Gregg-Adams, this whole side of Virginia is gentle on the miles and easy on the welcome, and the Blackstone Chamber keeps a rhythm of community events through the fall from craft markets to town festivals. The aviation community at Blackstone Army Air Field keeps the morning sky busy, and the little towns along Route 360 treat their military neighbors like family, because they are. For families shopping for the countryside life with a gate pass, September is the perfect month to drive the loop, stop for a country lunch, and feel out where you belong.