Pumpkin Patches

[MidnightPatrol]

There seems to be a new trend of ‘pumpkin patches’ popping up all over the place. I’ve seen a few advertised this week.

Now… none of these places to my knowledge grow pumpkins. So they have just put some pumpkins in a field.

Sometimes there seem to be some Halloween decorations too, but mainly just piles of pumpkins.

I am all for fun days out but… I don’t get it.

Most of them don’t even look very instagrammable (which I assumed was the point). Just… pumpkins on the ground.

Surely this activity would take 2-3 minutes?

My family visit https://www.spilmans.co.uk/ which do grow their own pumpkins. It's great - you walk around huge fields to find the one you want, there's other activities like tractor rides, and it's a really good day out with kids.

Can't speak to the "dump a load of supermarket pumpkins on a patch of grass" places though.

It has been a bad year for pumpkin growing. A farm that grows pumpkins for families to pick their own will not be having events this year after just 5% of their crop actually grew.

This and along with more halloween crap in shops is getting stupid. Plus some everyday items in supermarkets have HW images on them. What's so spooky about a loaf of bread FFS?

👊🏽

I agree that it's absolutely naff when venues buy a load of pumpkins and just dump them on a piece of grass. We visit the same farm every year where they are grown and there are hundreds and hundreds of them plus animals, a farm shop and farming machinery etc. It still a gimmick but much more authentic than the fake ones.

I'm excited to go in a few weeks it's one of our best autumn traditions.

We went to one last year and it was on a farm, the pumpkins were legitimately growing, there was loads to do and it was a lovely day out. 🤷‍♀️

We also like to go and pick out the Christmas tree in December. I await my flogging.

I used to live next to a farm which started pumpkin picking about ten years ago before it all blew up with instagram etc. they definitely grew pumpkins, various varieties. However maybe they were more successful than they anticipated and I saw them deliver cheap big orange pumpkins from a van several times in the weeks approaching Halloween/half term. Or maybe they just couldn't grow enough to meet demand.

I didn't know this was a thing . Our local pumpkin patches are on working farms who grow their own pumpkins . They always decorate lovely, have refreshments , some animals on display and sell their other produce as well as other local products.

Of course they don't grow randomly in fields but they do grow in fields when they are planted and cultivated there!

Why are you so angry about pumpkins?

We know a farmer that grows them, this is exactly what he does and charges a bloody fortune for them. He normally has between 20 - 25 extra truck deliveries to keep up with “demand” ie people buying tickets at £10.50 each. It’s a rip off.

We saw one last year near where we live, we knew there was no way pumpkins were growing in that field and when we drove past it there were huge cardboard crates with Tesco Pumpkins written on the side of them.

Well, farmers gotta make rent (or the payments on that Manitou telehandler or Keenan feed mixer wagon...the bank owns it all) I suppose. Diversification and all that.

Pumpkins are not traditionally grown in this country (not enough sun to ripen the human eating ones I think, as opposed to the more or less inedible carve 'n' chuck Hallowe'en ones) - turnips grow better, but are tougher to carve and not as Hallowe'en-y. Being a crap colour and all.

AFAIK actual pumpkin fields where they are grown are a depressing looking sea of mud by this time of year- they don't grow in grassy fields. And they require a sharp knife to cut the thick stalk, the results of which could not be good for the socials, unless you go in for sadface in A+E pics. Hence the scattering of Tesco ones in that little grassy paddock that was too small to get the forage harvester into to cut silage.

It isn't a rip off. You aren't paying for the pumpkin, and it isn't an essential, it's the experience and infrastructure. I kind of like that at least the farmer has a crop that actually makes a profit.

I wonder if there are any rules around using phrases like pumpkin patch, pumpkin picking etc. as you are choosing a pumpkin but not picking it like you would a strawberry

The only ones I’ve ever experienced have been good.

Went to a farm a few years ago where they grow their own (follow them on Instagram and see the posts and pumpkin updates all through the year) and then you can sit and carve them in a marquee and there’s a cute farm shop.

The one I’ve been to the last couple of years is fab, pumpkins are grown there and on Sunday nights through October there’s a marquee with a live band, hot chocolate stands, the farms own ice cream, open fires so you can buy and toast marshmallows, pizza and hot dogs, you can see the farm animals and also some games like basketball and hook a duck.

We went to one - it was basically pick your own pumpkins. We definitely picked it from the plant. It was fun. It won't last to Halloween though as we have already eaten it.

I think they’re fun and a nice way to mark autumn for the children. Our local farm has all kinds of other activities as well as pumpkin picking and it’s a good day out.

"It isn't a rip off. You aren't paying for the pumpkin, and it isn't an essential, it's the experience and infrastructure."

This. It's worth what people are willing to pay. There does seem to be a lot of "Have you booked anything for Hallowe'en yet?" "Have you booked anything for Christmas yet" on the whatsapp mum group I'm on.
When I was wee, mum got turnips out of the shop, we carved them if our fingers didn't get too cold and sore and we didn't get too bored, wedge a wonky end of a candle in (tealights weren't really much of a thing) and that was it. At Christmas we might get plonked on the knee of some bloke in a red suit and fake beard in a shopping centre and get given a cheap plasticky present in that cheap wrapping paper you could spit through.

Now the Christmas experience will be driving somewhere they have strung some lights in some clapped out remnants of an old apple orchard and you can pay an extra £4 for a small bag of special reindeer food (ewe breeder pellets or pony nuts with a bit of glitter in) to feed the reindeer the farmer bought off Done Deal.

It's all a bit Father Ted Tunnel of Goats AFAIC, and I'm a tightfisted Scrooge like mummy and don't bother but "for those who like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing that they like".
And if the children like it, the parents are happy, and the farmer makes a few bob to allleviate being up to his eyeballs in debt and stress, everyone's a winner.

Many companies, especially farms, need to diversify their offer. Many farms operate with financial losses, and climate change, economic issues, etc, will only exacerbate the situation. People want enjoyable experiences with their families; it may not be for everyone, but it is generally wholesome fun!

"I wonder if there are any rules around using phrases like pumpkin patch, pumpkin picking etc. as you are choosing a pumpkin but not picking it like you would a strawberry"

Well. You pick it up. Off the ground. Yeah it's not real. The Santa at the Winter Wonderland Experience (reindeer food £4, free parking) isn't real either. But anyone creating and enforcing that rule under Trading Standards would have to be some kind of turbo-wanker.

We went to one this weekend and really enjoyed it. Very toddler friendly, I didn't think it was hideously expensive, lots to do and yes there were pumpkins actually growing as well as ones that had been shipped in. We spent maybe 15 mins picking pumpkins and then did loads of other stuff, tractor rides, hay bale maze, various little photo ops, cornhole beanbag game, lunch, hot chocolates.

I'd happily go again, it's something a bit different to do that gets us off the usual weekend merry go round of park, softplay, farm, walk in the woods. If you don't want to go to one, just don't go.

I wonder if there are any rules around using phrases like pumpkin patch, pumpkin picking etc. as you are choosing a pumpkin but not picking it like you would a strawberry

What? 🫠

There’s a working farm near us and the fake pumpkin patch thing is one of their annual activities. They are open about the fact the pumpkins aren’t grown there and they make it look a bit more authentic. If it helps to supplement their income along with the open air cafe that they’ve done really well with then I don’t see what the issue is. Farmers really struggle as it is.