Looking forward to Halloween this year? If so, you’ll want to get organised well beforehand – one of the best bits of Halloween, in addition to getting dressed up, is getting to pick out a pumpkin at one of the many pumpkin patches springing up all around Gloucestershire.
Regardless of whether you’re going to make a jack-o-lantern or bake a pie with your big orange round pumpkin, you’ll want to try and find the biggest and best there is out there. Well, here are recommendations to four pumpkin patches open this year – and all with a pretty impressive reputation:
Over Farm
Spaces are available to book online now for Over Farm’s You’re Your Own Pumpkins event. It coincides with the Farm’s Spookyard Daytime Halloween Family Fun Event where you can go on a scarecrow hunt and laugh at a fancy dress or scarecrow show. The farm gate closes before noon so get ready for a very early start. Entry to the pumpkin pickin’ only event is between £2 to £4 each. The Spookyard event is £10 and £9.
Cotswold Farm Park
With a pumpkin trail to follow and a spooky face paint design to choose from, Cotswold Farm Park is a pumpkin pickin’ favourite with locals. The pumpkin field is open to peruse every weekend in October and all week during half term (22nd – 31st October).
Just remember to wrap up warm before you go and book in advance by choosing a date on the website. You can choose to turn up for just the pumpkin pickin’ or the entire farm park experience. Pumpkin pickin’ tickets are: adults (£5), children (£3). Farm Park tickets are: adults (£16), children (£15) and toddlers (£10).
Primrose Vale
The Farm’s Halloween Trail opens on October 22 and remains busy until October 31. Like other pumpkin patch pickin’ events, tickets for Primrose Vale must be booked in advance. This will be possible online after October 8.
The cost of your entry ticket can be redeemed against your choice of pumpkin. The event includes challenges and puzzles as well as a farm trail.
Cattle Country Farm Park
Opening on Saturday 9th October, Cattle Country’s Pumpkin Patch offers pickers a choice of hundreds of farm-grown pumpkins to choose from. And, once you’ve decided, get your picture taken with it in the special Pumpkin Patch photo booth.
You can also learn how to carve a pumpkin into a host of horribly scary faces, as well as enjoy a bit of on-site marshmallow toasting. During half term, there’ll also be the opportunity to indulge in some seriously arty face painting. Entry to the pumpkin pickin’ is part of the Cattle Country event which is Adults (£13), Children (£14.50) and toddlers (£10).
Meanwhile, here’s five fabulous facts about pumpkins, courtesy of the Countryside Alliance @CAupdates:
- Pumpkins are grown on every continent except Antarctica
- The world’s heaviest pumpkin weighed over 2,600 pounds
- Each pumpkin has about 500 seeds
- There are more than 45 different varieties of pumpkin
- The original jack-o’-lanterns were made with turnips and potatoes by Irish settlers in America
