Up until now you’ve probably skimmed through some pictures or articles online of Americans visiting pumpkin patches with their dear children during the run up to Halloween. This trendy idea seems to reached the shores of the UK with a storm this year, lots of local farms opened their doors for a short duration to allow you to go pick your own pumpkin, often incorporating tractor rides, face painting, seasonal food and other activities.
This year, having heard about this being advertised on Facebook and reading about it in one of my lovely mummy friends blogs (you can check her out here – Another Surrey Mum) we decided to take a trip to our local farm shop Secretts in Milford. They had plenty on offer, for only £1 each entry we could ride on a seasonally decorated tractor down to their pumpkin patch, hunt out our favourite – mostly my efforts – and bring it back home to eat or to carve. I bought a everyday regular carving pumpkin from a large retail store just in case I couldn’t carry Ariella and the pumpkin home. But safe to say, the Secretts pumpkins were so much better quality inside and out.
They recommended you wear wellies so I had to go shopping in a bit of a mad rush days before to find a pair in Ariella’s size. Opted for some Jojomamanbebe yellow ones with fox liners, she looked adorable! I went for a bigger size than needed as she isn’t quite walking yet so I want them to have extra room for when she is – also I wasn’t sure how much the liner would fill out the boots.
We had a blast! Ariella wasn’t too fond of waiting in line for the tractor, I like many other mums there decided to go for the carrier rather than taking her stroller. I’ve had good use out of this Tula toddler which I’m working on reviewing in the coming weeks.
I hadn’t expected how fun it would be to visit a pumpkin patch and all the extras with it. Everyone there seems really hyped up and it really got us into the spirit of Autumn. I have to compare it to going to a Christmas market or buying your first cup of mulled wine, it was throughly enchanting. The tractors were setup with hay bells to sit on in a long line, so it was close quarters on that front but added to the fun and Secretts didn’t skimp on the ride down, taking the long route there with lots of twists and turns.
Once you had chosen your pumpkin you could pop it through various sized holes to find out how much it was. Given it was just the two of us, we went for a smaller pumpkin costing just £2 but they also had monstrous sized ones back near the event setup for £15 each. Understandably these weren’t to be picked as you’d struggled to carry them back and fit it on the tractor with everyone else.
Plenty of lovely food, pumpkin curry and beverages although we decided not to eat as Ariella was at this point rather tired. But had she not been she certainly would have had a go on the mini children’s tractors and a lie down in the huge hay bed all the children were playing in. It was a great day for it weather wise too, if you enjoy this time of year as much as we do then I highly recommend you jump on this trend for 2017 and hopefully you’ll see the joy in a pumpkin patch too.
Certainly this will be on our list next year again, hopefully on a weekend so we can go as a family or with friends as it was a great day! Here’s a quick shot of my pumpkin carving skills, you can see I got quite bored after one pumpkin, must try better next year.
