Can you explain pumpkin patches to me?

[cherrypiepie]

Seems to be a thing the past two years or has been going longer?

Is it just a place to go to take cute pictures? Do they grow the pumpkins? What do you do?

Do I need to go to a pumpkin patch?

[RunningFromInsanity]

They’ve grown them.
You pick your own pumpkins, buy them, take them home and carve them.

[gardeninggirl68]

just a field with pumpkins?

i have grown some this year, can't believe how much space the vine have taken up!

[Burnt0utMum]

We went pumpkin picking last year and it was wonderful so we're going again this year. We'd be buying pumpkins anyway so a much nicer experience to get them from the field rather than the supermarket.

[QueenAdreena]

It’s been a trend for the past few years. The DC enjoy it so we go and pick a few each year but they’re really expensive round where we live. In reality, it’s also usually freezing, the fields are ridiculously muddy, the pumpkins are a pain to cut and walk around with and it’s never as much wholesome family fun as the insta-huns make it look on social media 😬 I’ve noticed that for the past couple of summers the sunflower fields are now becoming popular with that lot instead.

[Miraloma]

Not sure they'd exist without Instagram ...

[Marelle]

It’s like a really expensive supermarket that’s filthy and charges admission.

[Kitkat151]

That’s where pumpkins grow....in the pumpkin patch

[DobbyTheHouseElk]

American event.

Muddy field where pumpkins grow. You pay treble the price as a clean one from a supermarket.

[Fallagain]

Except most of them in the U.K. but the pumpkins and then scatter them around the field.

[AlfieandAnnieRose]

Some pumpkin patches have added things like maize mazes, bouncy castles, food stalls etc! The one near me has been running for about 10 years. Most people seem to go for the picture opportunity whereas we’re more interested in the maize maze 😄
Also it’s not always advisable to let your young child choose the pumpkin, as they will no doubt choose the ugliest pumpkin in the field! That you then have to take home and display.

[Jobseeker19]

My sister went and paid 30 pounds for 10 pumpkins she picked with her kids aswell as £6 entry fee.

You can buy a big pumpkin for a pound in Lidl.

I asked her if you cut them yourself she said they are already cut.

So whats to say its not an empty field filled with £1 pumpkins, or if they replaced picked pumpkins with Lidl pumpkins

She doesn't even eat pumpkin! Its going to go to waste!

[cherrypiepie]

Thanks! I though that the ones I saw when I went to a hallowe'en maize maize few years ago before it was a bit insta thing that it look like they had bought the pumpkins and scattered the about a few bales of hay - all nicely staged and 'gramable.

So it's sliding scale from 'muddy pick your own' to 'instahun not to missed'. But either way overpriced and can be enjoyable and magical or annoying, muddy and expensive.

[cherrypiepie]

Yes@Jobseeker19 this is what I wondered too!

[FlyingFlamingo]

The one by us grows a few but mostly buys them in and chucks them in the mud so that you have to risk your limbs walking down the slippery path whilst the dcs argue over the wheelbarrow before it inevitably falls over into the trench that wouldn’t look out of place in the Somme circa 1916. Then you pick a pumpkin and pay £5 for the pleasure before taking it home and have to carve an elaborate picture into the thing because a toothy grin is no longer fashionable enough. Then a few days later the pumpkin starts rotting and you have to persuade a crying child that no, you can’t keep it, it’s emitting eau de rotting vegetable and it needs to go into the compost heap.

Then next year you do it all again

[Kljnmw3459]

I don't get the appeal of pick your own places. If I have to pick it myself I want it to be cheap or free. Like foraging. I don't enjoy foraging so I don't go. But some of my colleagues have gone with their DC of various ages and have loved it. So you could try and see if you like it. Probably worth it if they offer other amusements as well as.

[Takemetothe90s]

@Miraloma

Not sure they'd exist without Instagram ...

I don’t have Instagram, I go to pumpkin patches with my 5 yo, some people do fun things for their children.
From what I’ve read on Mumsnet that is a radical thought though

[Toottooot]

For the ‘gram innit.

[Rainallnight]

We went to one in Essex last weekend and had a ball. The DC (3 and 5) loved it. There was a big playground, ‘wicked walkway’, a dragon, people dressed up as witches etc.

The pumpkins had been pre-cut so ‘picking’ meant selecting, which was actually better for the little kids.

I would definitely do it again (and I’m about as far from an Instahun as you can possibly imagine)

[cherrypiepie]

@Rainallnight that sounds like a lovely thing to do

@FlyingFlamingo not so much -but love your description!

[ReeseWitherfork]

I find the whole experience pretty boring. But my two year old loves running around like a mad man touching all the pumpkins and climbing on all the hail bales. Ours only costs £1 to get into and the pumpkins aren't that much more expensive that Asda. If at all.

I'm already bored of pumpkin photos on Instagram and we've got two weeks to go!

[samsalmon]

@Jobseeker19

My sister went and paid 30 pounds for 10 pumpkins she picked with her kids aswell as £6 entry fee.

You can buy a big pumpkin for a pound in Lidl.

I asked her if you cut them yourself she said they are already cut.

So whats to say its not an empty field filled with £1 pumpkins, or if they replaced picked pumpkins with Lidl pumpkins

She doesn't even eat pumpkin! Its going to go to waste!

This is a totally excellent post, I am crying with laughter!! 😂😂😂😂

[ReeseWitherfork]

HAY bales! Not hail bales.

[HoneyItAlreadyDid]

Pretty sure most don’t grow the pumpkins, just buy them and stick them in a field to look cute. 😂

[EKGEMS]

Here in the US you can pick your own pumpkin at a patch or choose from a selection of harvested pumpkins (usually held as a fund raiser to a school or Boy Scouts or a charitable cause) There is also sometimes corn mazes and hay rides and haunted houses and apple picking

[CombatBarbie]

The ones we've been too are bought pumpkins scattered in the fields where we do the strawberry picking..... With hay bales and scarecrows for kids