I’m writing a story about pumpkins, so I was in Schuylerville this morning to see how crops are developing at the Schuyler Farm. Most of the orange is still in the field.

Once out of Skyville, I took the Adirondack Northway and then Route 146 back to the mother ship in Schenectady. I cruised by “This Old Farm,” a couple miles west of the Shenendehowa school complex, and noticed a farm stand open for business. Also noticed a table close to the road, just loaded with big red tomatoes. I kept driving.

I figured tomatoes are plentiful right now, and expect to see bunches of sales at my local supermarket. And because I picked only about 15 or 20 tomatoes from six plants at home this blight-ruined season — a lousy season for other home growers, I might add — I am in the market for tomatoes.

That’s when I thought again about the roadside sale. I had been thinking about cruising to one of the local farmers’ markets ... and here, I had just passed one. I turned my car around.

I pulled into the farm’s small parking lot just after noon, and was the only car there. The tomatoes displayed were giants, softball-sized pounders with nary a mark or blemish on them. By comparison, my home-grown tomatoes looked like they had been used for batting practice.

I picked out four big ones, placed them in a plastic bag and thought about future cheeseburgers, omelettes and bacon, lettuce and you-know-what sandwiches. I paid $8 for the bounty. A little high? Maybe.

But I thought there was nothing wrong in cutting out the middle man for once, and letting the farmer make all the profits. I hear so much about farmers struggling with high costs of raising food, weather variables and not making much dough for their crops, so I felt fine shelling out the cash — for fruits grown by a true professional.

It’s my way of telling the farmer “Thanks” for all the hard work that goes into running a farm.

And I think I’ll go back next week.