"Pumpkin picking" WTF

I'm a natural cynic, but even I think there's nothing wrong with this at all.

Its a fun day out doing something fairly benign. Far better than 90% of current attractions that are either rip off expensive/involve plastic tat/screen time etc etc. Let the kids get muddy and have some fun. The farmers also benefit. I'm all for it.

It has shot up out of nowhere over the last few years. Sadly I was one of the idiots queuing up to visit one last week 🤦🏻‍♀️ I just felt it would be an ‘event’ to take my toddler to and something to look forward to. We happened to add on a ticket to an outdoor adventure park beside it and I’m so glad we did as the actual pumpkin picking took all of about 5/10 minutes. There was very little to it. I was struggling to see what all the fuss was about. It just felt very much like the garden centre were rinsing us for every penny we had. We’d already paid (I think £30) to go walk round someone’s field but we were now also having to buy the pumpkin we’d ‘picked’. The adventure park was run by them also and came to £20 for us to get in, to what is essentially a play park. There were a few attractions at it like a tractor ride or little electric cars to drive round a track but of course all of these things cost more money again!

Then when we went to leave there was no way out apart from a route straight through the gift shop (cue toddler meltdown)! They were selling burgers and hot dogs after you paid for your pumpkins too just to try and get any last drop of money off you. As we drove home I was just thinking we are about £100 down and we’re heading home with a pumpkin we could have got in the supermarket for probably three quid!

My parents own a hobby farm with a little petting zoo thing attached.. the new thing is pumpkin picking and they get the Pumpkins in by the pallet at about 60p per pumpkin, throw them all over the barren field and charge people about £6 a pumpkin plus they take exta takings on petting zoo and then the cafe, animal feeds etc. Mugs

It's fun and my kids love it. We spent all day at our local one last weekend because they had lots of other things to do like inflatables, a magic show and mini golf etc.

although I noticed this year some people insisted on spending ages getting the perfect photo and got in the way of people like us who actually wanted to take part in the activities. Some dressed their kids in completely unsuitable clothing considering it had rained solidly for 2 days prior, and shrieked if the little darlings even dared to look at a puddle. As if little Tarquin would spontaneously combust if a bit of dirt touched his shoes.

Really? You can't believe that people enjoy a day out just for the fun of it?

How sad.

No it's not.

Halloween isn't American. It was a thing in Ireland and Scotland before America existed. I love pumpkins because turnips are a bastard to carve.🎃🎃🎄

The vast majority of activities aimed at small kids are tedious and pointless if you don't have small kids. No need to be sneery.

Our farm does the carving too - they have a list of faces and the DC choose one. If they didn't do it, they wouldn't be cut

Tortilla, you are supposed to do the carving, in a ritual to prove your unconditional love that could well end up with you slicing off your fingers.

It’s all part of the Halloween ‘fun’!

I love it and and it’s something we look forward to each year. It’s a nice trip out, we have fun doing the faces on the pumpkins and the people at the farm cut them out for us, there’s a bouncy castle, spooky barn, pet corner, larger farm animals to see. It’s basically a glorified farm visit with pumpkins, and it really marks the season for us. My two enjoy it so much and look forward to it. Sure, you don’t have to do it but you don’t have to go anywhere so you?!

Lol

it depends very much on your children’s reactions I think.

I’d have loved it if mine donned wellies and burnt off a bit of energy whizzing about with a wheelbarrow. Basically, I would have taken them anywhere and paid any amount of money to do it, so long as they had fun.

But all mine ever did on things like this was punish me with ‘what for?’ looks and complain they’re tired, hungry and cold the entire time. I’d then spend the afternoon overcompensating and getting more and more deflated, whilst H would look awkward and suck violently on his vape.

thus the frogfighter’s day out pumpkining.

ergo, I hate the idea!!!

That is very amusing! I have lived in places before when you take the little ones in the field where they grew and picked them but never have we picked transplanted ones.

I think it’s really weird. I’m with you OP. And I have a toddler and a baby so I’m not an old person having a moan about a young fad

Thankyou for having the guts to say what we all know. It’s a well known fact that only clever people have vegetable patches. Stupid people have lawns, or worse have yards or even nothing at all! The gall of them utter thickos purchasing vegetables rather than growing them makes me sick.

<whispers> I'm not sure if usernames are case sensitive, but if so, I wonder if this is who you think it is...

It's for people too stupid to grow their own because it would ruin their precious lawn.

I’ve read some well thought out posts of yours in a variety of topics. And now this? Has your account been hacked? Are you drunk? 🤣

I had no idea these things are a set up..... assumed because they are so easy to grow that these places set aside less fertile ground to grow them on..... thank god I've not lined any pockets this year....(tbh I'd never pay their prices anyway......a walk down the nearest canal with a stop on the way home at a shop that sells them is just as good an experience IMO.... )

Wait for it Red.. a barrage of personal insults will be thrown your way shortly for that one😂😂😂

I think this has just pipped the "dogs at the pumpkin patch are the collapse of society" person to the post. Congratulations, gold medal to you, but honourable mention for the other person.

Does that also apply to people who buy pumpkins in supermarkets?

In fact, does that further apply to anyone who buys any vegetables ever?

🤣🤣🤣
WTF!!

I'm English and we followed many of those traditions at Halloween when I was a child, as did my mother when she was a child in the fifties. We made lanterns from swedes, had a party with a bonfire and sparklers, apple bobbing and various other food-based games. Halloween may well have been originally Celtic but the traditions existed in England for some time before American practices crept in.

It's for people too stupid to grow their own because it would ruin their precious lawn.

A farm near us had one with pumpkins actually growing and other fun stuff for children. £3 per person/pumpkin, very pretty surroundings - not bad I thought!

For me, it’s no different than going to buying one from a shop where the kid picks it out - it’s obviously just much more fun (it’s also good exercise).

The same as conkers or pine cones.

You can buy these in the shops too but it’s more fun to find them and choose them.
(Obviously these are free).