"Pumpkin picking" WTF

In my day, my dad would drive us to a neep field under the cover of darkness, chuck us over the barbed wire fence and we'd have to steal a "neep" (swede) each. Then he'd angrily carve them out while we were sleeping because it took so long. I now think that it was a Scottish, hard-core version of the modern day pumpkin patch!

This is why I don't like getting them from the supermarket, but the ones from the pumpkin patch have lots of flesh so I'm making pumpkin pie tomorrow.

We go every year, the kids like stomping round the mud in their wellies. Our place they're grown there, the vines are still all over the place with quite a lot of the small pumpkins attached. But it's not really picking as the farmer has cut the majority off from the vine. There's no entry fee though and I think we spent £8 on three pumpkins which was alright really. It's also a proper farm shop that's open year round with free range meat and other veg bits. They also grow some Christmas trees I think.

For me it's 100% not about photos for social media as I don't post on social media ever. I think it's just something to do with an afternoon really, and a way to get them outside. It's fun for kids to run about choosing their pumpkins, more interesting than rifling through a big cardboard display under fluorescent lights in a supermarket. And they like to get pushed out in the wheelbarrow and help push the wheelbarrow back. We usually walk in the woods nearby afterwards.

Sticking them in a field where they aren't grown is a bit weird though. Seems a lot of effort.

But the fact is they don't.

Quite a few farmers have posted on here that they do it.

It’s all about the Instagram photos😉 In our day we bought them at Tesco’s 😂

We go pumpkin picking with teens, its a local farm shop, pumpkins are grown there some are still attached to vine, some arent but they are defintely all grown there. Its more expensive but its good to support a local business, we also do strawberry picking there in the summer. No hay bales or hot chocolate though just a muddy field and cash only.
Im struggling to get my head round that apparently some pyo pumpkins arent grown there but bought in and arranged in a field!!

Quite.

And even though f it's a new thing... Doesn't matter! Things change, we don't exactly celebrate Christmas the same way as we did 100 years ago... Or do Easter the same etc

I am troubled by the pp who have described the “wholesome” activity of carving a pumpkin with their family and cooking the flesh. Carving pumpkins taste like cotton wool.

@ChiaraRimini I do this every year 🤷🏻‍♀️ Tastes great! Trick is to choose a medium to small sized pumpkin.

Not everyone has a lawn!

There’s a difference between taking/posting a photo of an achievement or organic pictures of spontaneous moments, and going and posing for pictures against a carefully staged photogenic backdrop. Your example isn’t comparable to people doing an activity because it makes for a good photo opportunity.

We paid 2.50 for adults, kids 1.50 and the pumpkins were about 3 quid (we only got one small one). So about 10 pounds per family. Which seemed fine to me for a couple of hours activity.

I think people are a being a bit snobby. Yes it wasn't a thing when I was a child but I'd have loved it if it was. It's nice to mark the seasons!

I'm sure there are some parents who do lovely home picked veg (I do grow the odd tomato) and home made crafts but life is hectic and people want to do something that is low effort but wholesome with their children. It is a bit mean-spirited to sneer at that.

Good luck making a pie out of the pumpkins grown for carving....

100% refuse to join in with this madness.

I didn't realise anyone was trying to force you? Who are you refusing? What moral stand is this?

Turnips are much harder to carve!

I am the target market. 100% refuse to join in with this madness. We pick a pumpkin as a family from a supermarket, we scoop out the guts as a family, carve it as a family and cook the flesh and seeds. Not one photo goes on social media and we still enjoy it and have fun.
Each to their own but I find it mind boggling why people endure it every year. Almost everyone I know who's done it, hates it and hates the cost.

Novel idea: Perhaps if supermarkets paid prices for food which reflected production costs, farmers wouldn't have the need to do this

But what's wrong with supporting local farmers?

Often its not actually farmers. Its commercial ventures who've rented a field and dumped a load of pumpkins & haystacks in it.

A farmer is someone who actually grows something or rears animals etc.... not someone who flogs pumpkins they've not grown for a huge mark up.

I decided when my DC were toddlers that i wanted most of the annual "traditions" we would have as a family to be inexpensive things that didn't involve massive commercialisation - nothing that involves paying entry fees, buying props, or booking tickets. Buying into all these things just means if you have a tough year & can't afford it you feel rotten like you've let down your kids.

So no pumpkin picking, no elf on a shelf, no christmas boxes, no santa grottos.

Instead

• homemade toffee at bonfire night
• we do get a pumpkin & carve it, but its a cheap supermarket one or one from our neighbours allotment and the carving is the fun bit - i surprise the kids with a new design each year.
• we have a christmas music playlist i put on in the morning straightaway on December 1st
• a special homemade Christmas biscuit recipe that we decorate ourselves
• we all go together to the local farm that grow christmas trees to choose the tree and we decorate it together
• i usually try and find out where a sally army band will be playing carols and take the kids to see!

But what's wrong with supporting local farmers?

I’m certainly not against a fun family day out, just extortionate prices!!! I was told today about a place locally that’s cheap so I’ll be going there next year.

Having done pumpkin choosing a few times now, I’m totally over it.

the pumpkins cost about 5 x the price as Asdas . Plus it’s muddy.

pointless tbh

the worst bit is carving them: is there a market for ready carved pumpkins?

£50!! Wow, that’s expensive. We went to one on a local farm the other day and had a really lovely family day out with my 15 month old. He was thrilled to ride around in a wheelbarrow amongst all these funny orange, green and white balls, and loved getting muddy and climbing up the hay bale ‘mountain’ they’d built for kids. We paid £4.50 to enter (price per car not per person), had a delicious wood fired pizza from a van for £6 and bought one giant, one medium and one small pumpkin which came to £10. So yes, more expensive than Lidl where we normally shop but I was actually pretty impressed with a whole day out including food for ~£20. There were other local ones that were more expensive but you just shop around for value like anything else.

agree it is a totally weird concept sticking a bunch of pumpkins in a field to be “picked” but my little one had a whale of a time so we’ll be going back next year!

I struggle massively with plants, I have 3 that I'm struggling to remember to look after, I don't wish to add a pumpkin to the ever growing list of living things I need to keep alive. It's hard enough keeping myself alive someday!