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Original poster

Can you explain pumpkin patches to me?

56 replies

cherrypiepie · 13/10/2021 21:04

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?

OP posts:
rjacksmiss · 13/10/2021 21:58

Twee shite for the gram!

Thereisnoname · 13/10/2021 22:01

Went last year, was a total quagmire got covered in mud, paid a fortune for not very big ones and had to pay about £3 for child to shoot rotten pumpkins at wooden zombies.
Not worth the money in my opinion, i'll be going to aldi this year that's for sure.

Iliketeaagain · 13/10/2021 22:04

My kids enjoy it, it's a fun (for them) activity in half-term week.

Yes, I could probably get pumpkins cheaper, but for a paid for activity, I don't find it that expensive, even if including the pumpkin or 2.

They wouldn't have as much fun to a trip to Lidl for a £1 pumpkin 🤷🏻‍♀️

TattySlippers · 13/10/2021 22:09

Pumpkin patches are a farmers field - much like pick your own strawberries. Except everyone only wants to pick one pumpkin (and pay 4 times as much as you would for a pumpkin in a supermarket). A toddler in a pumpkin patch makes for a great pic tho 😊🎃

BlowDryRat · 13/10/2021 22:12

From my first and only experience a few years ago:

It was a massive field of pumpkins of different varieties. We got a wheelbarrow and a couple of knives at the entrance and were let loose with the DC. The DC were tasked with finding the biggest pumpkin in the field - BIG MISTAKE! HUGE! - while DH and I chose a few tiny pumpkins for little decorations. The DC chose a pumpkin each, we cut them and headed back to the entrance to pay. £58 later, DH and I collapsed onto the thoughtfully-provided hay bales to recover from the shock, while the DC gleefully posed for photos with the scarecrows for the patch's biggest pumpkin leaderboard.

The pumpkins were charged by weight and I nearly died when the man weighed them up and gave us the total. Because we'd made such a big thing to the DC of choosing the biggest, and cut them from the vine, I didn't feel we could do anything but pay. Such an idiot. I've bought the DC a £1 pumpkin each from the supermarket every year since then.

So yes, have fun but for goodness sake check the pricing!

Blankiefan · 13/10/2021 22:14

We've gone to our local one for about 6 years now - I think they got in ahead of the insta-curve but they're bang in it now. Full on photo shoots and special date nights.

Despite that, we enjoy going along for our Autumnal kicks. They've got cute little "I'm x pumpkins tall" signs and suchlike which we get a photo of DD next to so we can see her progression from year to year. It's fills a couple of pages in our annual family photo album for the grandparents.

It's also a nice way of visiting a farm and showing DD that stuff comes from the ground. Ours dies grow their own. The place we go to does other farm-y stuff too(eg you can go and visit the new born lambs in Spring).

TattySlippers · 13/10/2021 22:16

@BlowDryRat

Wow!! 😵‍💫 My DD took 2 year old DGD to pick a pumpkin at a pumpkin patch last year. The photos were lovely. DD paid £6.50 for the pumpkin which I thought was extortionate!

£58!!!!! Crikey! 😳

CorianderAndCream · 13/10/2021 22:18

It's been a thing in America for decades I think. Take the kids, pick out your pumpkin and they chop it off the vine for you. It's just a bit of autumn fun.

TokyoSushi · 13/10/2021 22:23

Around here it seems to be a muddy field at a 'farm' with tea room, mini train and other such money making fun opportunities attached. There is clearly no pumpkins grown here but just hundreds of the £1 Lidl type pumpkins strewn about that you can jauntily cart around in a wheelbarrow all the while taking pictures and filming content for the gram. Gilets, Boden and Hunter wellies aplenty, then about £46 for your pumpkin haul at the end.

We do sometimes go, I allow the DC to buy one tiny pumpkin each so as not to appear tight and then we fill our boots with identical £1 Lidl pumpkins on the way home!

puddlebubble · 13/10/2021 22:34

@gardeninggirl68 Yes, if you let it grow upwards rather than outwards you would have found jack of the beanstalks giant on top of the sheer growing power of the vine. Having said all that I now have 1 absolutely massive pumpkin out of 10m of vine in 4 directions. I'd willingly just try a pumpkin patch instead.

thatsnotmyzoo · 13/10/2021 22:39

@BlowDryRat 😂😂😂😂 holy shit

Itstheprinciple · 13/10/2021 22:40

My DD is 14 so we missed the pumpkin patch thing, although I do keep threatening that I am going to take her and make her sit in a wheelbarrow so I can photograph her.

621CustardCream438 · 13/10/2021 22:55

They definitely grow them in the field we go to - they’re pre cut but the vines are all still there to trip over! It’s muddy and a bit boring but my kids think it’s amazing. To be fair the farmer plants an astonishing array of pumpkin types/colours/sizes as well as a tonne of other pick/dig your own vegetables, sets up a play area and puts on a cafe. Loads of wheelbarrows and trolleys the kids love pulling. And his pricing is reasonable considering it’s free entry and he’s got to make money somehow. If the weather is good it’s a decent way to waste a few hours of half term. If it rains it’s absolutely awful and like a quagmire - I’m not going this year if it’s wet.

Milkbottlelegs · 13/10/2021 23:05

Some of them are absolutely awful. We went to one in a London park a few years ago. Literally a load of pumpkins dumped on the grass, fence put round the area and charged a ridiculous amount to get in.

Weedsorwishes · 13/10/2021 23:41

I'm about as far from an instahun as you could get I spend most of my days in a muddy field anyway with my toddler so I'm not paying pumpkin patch prices to walk round a field on a weekend thanks!

Although one near us does quite a cool thing where one school holidays (I think it's the summer) the children plant the pumpkin seeds then you go back in October half term and pick them. That's pretty good. Although we don't go!

gardeninggirl68 · 13/10/2021 23:46

They are fun to grow from seed

I've been fascinated myself by ours! Very cool

Heyha · 14/10/2021 00:01

Can I just say the bales you're all seeing will be straw not hay 😂

Some places have been doing it for 10 years or so, I can remember going with a nob of an ex and his much nicer little nephew. I'll be taking DD this year but git to find one where they grow their own as at least they've put in the work to charge a premium for the bloody things unlike the 'buy them cheap, lay them out artfully and charge a fortune' places.

Saz12 · 14/10/2021 00:03

The one near us grows some pumpkins, then buys some in. All are pre-cut due to their insurance. Muddy field, churro stall, hot choc stall, tractor rides, proper photographer. Gets bigger every year. My cynicism can’t deal with it, but it’s very popular generally!

Banani · 14/10/2021 06:58

The one near us is nice, they are grown there (and always run out a week before Halloween so I don’t think they buy extra in), no entry fee but they put on some extra bits like story telling and a trail through the woods. The pumpkins are reasonably priced too, it’s done on size and they have a big piece of wood with holes cut out for the kids to work out the price. I don’t use Instagram so not about the photos, the kids just love the experience and it’s become a tradition for us.

RevolvingPivot · 14/10/2021 07:01

It's a nice thing to do but honestly you go and collect a pumpkin and that's it. Done. Usually £8 for a large. I got a large from Aldi £2.50.

Comedycook · 14/10/2021 07:03

Ha! We did this one year. Not sure if they'd even been grown there, I doubt it...there were just loads of pumpkins in a muddy field. We drove for ages, got covered in mud and payed a fortune. We were queuing up to pay and wondering why we didn't just pop into the nice clean Sainsbury at the end of the road and pick one up for a fraction of the cost!

Still .. making memories, blah blah blah

LynetteScavo · 14/10/2021 07:06

Inner once and the pumpkins were pre-cut. No vines to be seen! With hindsight I think they might have been placed in the field Grin. Luckily the farm shop was very good so not a completely wasted trip. I was a bit bemused that people were driving out to the country to collect a pumpkin from a freshly ploughed field for much more than it would cost in a supermarket. I did get a nice photo for insta though.

Bunnycat101 · 14/10/2021 07:12

Did it once with a 2yo then not had a chance since. Have tickets for this year and I think my girls will both love it. I’ve learnt from previous experience though and will be going early and early on in the week. Ours gets rammed as there are also rides etc.

Porfre · 14/10/2021 07:18

We're going to a farm. So a great day out anyway and they've got a pumpkin patch. They're just bought ones but the kids love it.
The first time I did it I was shocked and thought it was a bit of a RIP off. The pumpkins are around £3 each. I thought they would have been growing from the ground.

But the kids enjoy it. They get to walk in the mud. Use a wheelbarrow. Choose a pumpkin. And also some nice photo opportunities.

The farm is going to have lots of Halloween fun anyway, and when they see the patch they will want a pumpkin. So if we do go we'll get a couple.

Mpew fun than just picking one on you weekly supermarket shop, might be worth trying it one year to see if it's for you. But like they've said above, check the pricing of the pumpkins.

lollipoprainbow · 14/10/2021 07:19

We used to have an amazing pumpkin place in a little village in Sussex the owner used to make a display from them all every year. There were so many different colours and sizes to choose from and not too expensive. There was a pumpkin cafe in the local church too. Covid put paid to that and he couldn't afford to keep running it. Gutted it's gone it was a really lovely afternoon out.