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Original poster

"Pumpkin picking" WTF

388 replies

HauntedGusset · 29/10/2023 17:21

Driving home from a visit to family today there was an absolutely massive traffic jam caused by cars entering/leaving a farm shop that also has a small events centre attached. I last passed the farm shop a few weeks ago and they had some other event on with cars parked all over the field nearest the road. Anyway today the same field was covered in huge pumpkins with families trudging round in the mud "picking" them - but they didn't grow there, they can't have done as the same field was a car park last month Confused They've just been plonked there. Someone tell me why this is a thing?

(And no, I don't have small DC anymore so I suppose I've missed this becoming popular, I was vaguely aware people pick pumpkins but imagined it to be like picking strawberries where you actually pick them fresh from the plant, not like a crapper muddier version of just buying one from Lidl!)

OP posts:
Snowonthebeachx · 30/10/2023 19:43

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.

mn29 · 30/10/2023 19:50

Pickingmyselfup · 30/10/2023 18:55

You got me! All the weeks training for it just so I could post a picture with my medal.

I mean who doesn't like getting up early on a Sunday morning to go and run 10km. Put myself down for a half marathon next year too, just for the gram pictures.

Bit silly really since the pictures that got taken by the official organisers are awful so I'm out there for the whole world to see 😱

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.

Autumnvibes23 · 30/10/2023 19:50

RedToothBrush · 29/10/2023 21:42

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

Not everyone has a lawn!

TheBirdintheCave · 30/10/2023 19:55

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

DrMarshaFieldstone · 30/10/2023 19:57

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.

00100001 · 30/10/2023 19:58

Snowonthebeachx · 30/10/2023 19:43

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.

Edited

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

Runnerduck34 · 30/10/2023 20:13

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!!

Northernladdette · 30/10/2023 20:22

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

Autumnvibes23 · 30/10/2023 20:33

Pooooochi · 30/10/2023 19:18

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.

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

Autumnvibes23 · 30/10/2023 20:35

RedToothBrush · 30/10/2023 19:19

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

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But the fact is they don't.

Blueey · 30/10/2023 20:36

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.

Autumnvibes23 · 30/10/2023 20:37

ChiaraRimini · 30/10/2023 19:42

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

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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.

toastlady · 30/10/2023 20:43

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!

jodes88 · 30/10/2023 20:47

We go every year have done since our little girl was one - she is now 9. There is a group of us which has grown over the years as people have had more children. Lovely annual social event where we spend about twenty quid on pumpkins get the annual photos and then go for a pub lunch! I for one thoroughly enjoy it. 🎃🎃

Ryeman · 30/10/2023 21:07

I think it’s daft and another thing that’s come from the US. All very gimmicky. Not quite so bad if the pumpkins are still attached where they grew.

Tryingmybestadhd · 30/10/2023 21:47

It’s an American thing adopted by us in the U.K. . Honestly I hate it , whether is always crap , the pumpkins are like 5x the price and I still pay to pick them . Makes nil sense

MumApril1990 · 30/10/2023 22:15

Where we go they grow in the field (you can see the vines). It is very odd that somebody has just put them there!

AdobeWanKenobi · 30/10/2023 22:38

Tryingmybestadhd · 30/10/2023 21:47

It’s an American thing adopted by us in the U.K. . Honestly I hate it , whether is always crap , the pumpkins are like 5x the price and I still pay to pick them . Makes nil sense

It’s been explained several times on this thread now that the tradition stems from Ireland and Scotland and was originally carving turnips.
it’s very much not an American thing, people just switched to pumpkins because carving turnips is a nightmare.

vickylou78 · 30/10/2023 23:59

The pumpkin patches near us are proper pick of the vine situation. Like strawberry picking but the biggest pummins the farmers have cut off. The smaller ones still all attached to the vines. Not sure why you'd go to a field where they are just plonked there?

MeinKraft · 31/10/2023 00:03

toastlady · 30/10/2023 20:43

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!

Irish too. I still remember sitting as a young child, trying to carve a turnip with a spoon 🤣

Mothership4two · 31/10/2023 05:53

DS and girlfriend (both 19) went pumpkin picking at the weekend from a farm and went and picked it. Think they thought it is a fun thing to do

MercyChant66 · 31/10/2023 09:49

MeinKraft · 31/10/2023 00:03

Irish too. I still remember sitting as a young child, trying to carve a turnip with a spoon 🤣

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Yes, I remember my Dad cutting his fingers trying to make a turnip lantern for us in Scotland in the 60s/70s. And no tealights either - just a stub of candle burning inside!

eastegg · 31/10/2023 11:13

Goodadvice1980 · 29/10/2023 17:40

OP I agree it does seem a bit cringey and another americanisation 🎃 however with the cost of living crisis I think if parent(s) are struggling with money and they can afford it for their DC it’s probably better value than a crappy amusement park!

I came on to say this is exactly the sort of thing I can’t believe people are doing given the COL crisis, and here’s someone dressing it up as a cost saving activity! Buying a pumpkin in a field is no substitute for an amusement park is it? So it doesn’t save money at all, it’s an additional expense on something ridiculous.

AdobeWanKenobi · 31/10/2023 12:06

eastegg · 31/10/2023 11:13

I came on to say this is exactly the sort of thing I can’t believe people are doing given the COL crisis, and here’s someone dressing it up as a cost saving activity! Buying a pumpkin in a field is no substitute for an amusement park is it? So it doesn’t save money at all, it’s an additional expense on something ridiculous.

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Some people aren't in a COL Crisis.
Some people can afford to go pumpkin picking
Some people find things different things enjoyable.

TheWayTheLightFalls · 31/10/2023 12:26

@eastegg obviously not for people without two pennies to rub together but in our case a total spend of £8 for four pumpkins and several hours' entertainment and then several more hours carving the thing (and probably two meals after the big day) is a lovely and cheap day out. Not for everyone but not hard to imagine either. We're not hard up but I resent spending money on soft play type kiddy things.