Pumpkin picking

Today, for a fun family outing, we took the kids to a place down the road called The Berry Ranch to pick pumpkins for Halloween. I drive by this ranch every time I go to my baby appointments, and all summer I kept telling myself that we'd need to go and pick some berries. Never did, but definitely next year. Anyway, apparently the Saturday before Halloween is a prime time to go pumpkin picking, because there were lots of people with the same idea. They have a couple of John Deer tractors that pull 3 flatbed trailers hooked together which are loaded down with hay bales for people to sit on and ride to the pumpkin patch. You get on, you ride to the patch, you stay until you find the pumpkins you want, then you catch a ride back on another tractor. They were coming and going about every half hour, I think.

I was expecting a chilly fall day, but I think it was close to 70 degrees. So there was really no need for hats except to keep the sun out of their faces, and 'cause they just look so darn cute!

I'm trying to be less shy about putting pictures of me on here- if only I were better at Photoshop that double chin would be history!

Hakan found his pumpkin within seconds of stepping off the trailer, so we spent the rest of the half hour wandering around admiring all the lovely pumpkins and trying to find just the right one for Pyper. The rule is that children have to be able to carry their own pumpkin, so it took a while to find one that wasn't too big, too small, too dirty, too this or too that for her. I think she was happy with her choice. We found it in the nick of time, too, because we'd made our way pretty far into the field and there was a tractor coming to do a pick up. We didn't want to wait around for another half an hour, so we had to hustle back to make it. It was kind of tricky picking our way quickly through the dead vines, rotting pumpkins and bumpy terrain, but we all made it out okay in the end.







Before you get back on to return, you talk to an employee and tell them how many kids and adults you have, the ages of the kids and how many pumpkins you're leaving with. Smaller kids cost less, and adults can just go to the patch without picking a pumpkin (like us), or you can pay more and get the biggest pumpkin you can carry, which seemed to be the goal of a lot of folks we saw. They don't charge by the pound (which is why they say that children have to be able to carry their own- no fair having them "pick" a pumpkin the size of a Buick then having Daddy haul it out), but you can pay a couple of bucks per pumpkin if you want to take more than one. The employee then hands you a paper to take back to the ranch and you pay before you leave the gates.


This ranch also raises a few animals, and before we left we stopped to see some sheep, pigs and cows in their pens. We all had a really good time and are definitely going to have to go back when berries are in season.

(P.S. Amy asked about where I got the kids' hats, so I thought I'd add the info here for anyone else who might want to know. I did not make them- knitting is still on my "to be learned" list of hobbies. I got them from a really nice Canadian gal who runs an Etsy shop called Citefuzz. She'd approached me originally to see if I'd be interested in a trade, shoes for a hat. We were both so pleased with the other's work that we collaborated on a larger scale trade (14 pairs of shoes for 14 hats of our choice) and we're going to offer them together as gift sets in our shops soon. The hats she made for me are all terrific- I'm really looking forward to pairing them with some of my shoe designs! Anyway, go check her out and let her know that Sarah from Diddle Dumpling sent you by.)