I for one do love spooky season, it’s a fun way to go into the autumn months and try and distract yourself from the knowledge that the next 6 months are going to be cold, wet and gross.
The last few years I’ve literally done nothing for Halloween, not even had any trick-or-treaters at my door, and it has been rubbish. But this year I’ve not been waiting around for other people to invite me places, and the Halloween celebrations have not been any different. Forget waiting for a party invite to turn up, I’m off to a pumpkin patch!
I had tried to find a pumpkin patch last year. My boyfriend and I drove to one which I had found on google, which turned out that they had shut their patch to the public this year and weren’t even selling pumpkins until the weekend, so we ended up leaving completely empty-handed and deflated. I then found the patch that we’ve ventured to this year, but due to work and uni schedules, the only time we had off was when it was closed.
This year we’ve both got a more flexible schedule, so, I dragged the boyfriend off to the pumpkin patch at Canalside Farm to get our hands dirty and our shoes muddy. I’ve never been to pick a pumpkin before, I’ve always had mine from some supermarket for like £3 to carve several days before Halloween, and I’ve only ever had one medium-sized orange pumpkin each year - so this was completely new for me.
I knew straight away that I wanted a white one and so we went on the hunt for one straight away. I made Jonny get a wheelbarrow and told him he would be carting everything about and that was his job for the day. I’ve got some good pictures of him frowning at me about that. It turned out that the white patch was the furthest away from the entrance that you could actually get, so I spent most of the walk getting more and more worried that I wasn’t going to be able to get a white one. Even when we got there, the white ones seemed to have already been ravished and there were a lot that were damaged and squashed. It was looking like I would have to relinquish this dream for another year until we got right to the very back of the patch and found a beauty! I wasn’t going to have to wait another year for a white one!
Next to the white patch is where they grow their larger orange pumpkins, so we decided to have a wander through here and take some photos for the gram. Jonny decided at this point that a huge pumpkin would be exactly the pumpkin for him and that he will be carving it, so good luck to him on that. I’m not sure he’s thought about how long it’s going to take to gut! However, since he now had one, I also now wanted one, of course. Pumpkin jealousy. So I spent some time looking for a pumpkin that was big, but not too big, and a good shape to put in my window, and when I found it I made Jonny pick it up and put it in the wheelbarrow with the other two and cart them all around for the rest of the visit! (Honestly, he’s a good egg).
As well as a white pumpkin, I also knew that I wanted to find the small orangita pumpkins that I’d seen on their website, and I wanted a few. We hadn’t seen any yet, so decided to move over to the other patch. We took a look through the medium pumpkins, and right at the very end (again) we found a few that were left. Again, a lot of the small ones seemed to already have been picked over the opening weekend – probably a lot of children wanting to hold their own pumpkin. While we were looking, I also stumbled across a green pumpkin that was very dark, looked almost black and very aesthetic, so I picked that up as well. I also found a twin pumpkin, two growing from the same stalk! Straight in my basket. This whole time I’m examining pumpkins and roaming around in the mud Jonny is following me around with the wheelbarrow taking photos. He’s very patient with me being an odd potato.
I think this will definitely become a new tradition for me I really enjoyed picking pumpkins and supporting my local farm shop. Canalside Farm is brilliant. They do berry picking in the summer and have a year-round café and shop where they sell their home-made food including a bakery, deli and meat counter. Check out their website, and if you’re local give them a visit. If not, I urge you to find your own local farm shop and see what they have to offer!