Pumpkin Picking at Laverock Hall
Top tips for pumpkin picking in the UK – specifically at Laverock Hall
As the new Autumn term has started , I'm sure a lot of parents will already be thinking of half term activities, especially Halloween themed ones. As a mum, it is amazing how quickly half terms do creep up on you! If you're prepared, and are coming to Laverock for pumpkin picking, then this is the blog to read to make sure you're prepped to the max!
I think it has always been a really American thing to pumpkin pick, but since my children were little the ‘spooky season’ and the gourds that come with it have certainly grown in popularity (granted, the oldest of my children is 30 now, so maybe that was a bit too far back!).
Now, onto the bulk of the reason you’re reading this, a farmer’s wife’s top tips for farmyard pumpkin activities and how to keep stress levels down for parents and guardians:
- Bring appropriate footwear. Now, this one might seem like an obvious one, but every year somebody is caught out by it with brand new white trainers! We do have some other tips within footwear so read on.
- If you don’t have wellies, then how about wearing your mucky shoes, but taping plastic bags onto your feet? Not perfect, but certainly better than shelling out! You can always take the bags off quickly for a photo.
- Bring bags to transport your pumpkins in, and make sure they’re sturdy enough to actually carry them too. We do not provide them, as we try and be environmentally minded so would rather you bring your own bags for life.
- If you’re planning a display at your home, which I think has become a lot more popular (and does take advantage of our great variety of pumpkins), then don’t leave without buying a bale of straw from us! One top farmer tip is that the best way to stop you from finding straw all over your boot until Christmas is to use an old bedsheet or duvet cover to wrap the bale in or to pull over all of the corners of the boot.
- Lost and found. We have a really good track record of getting items back to people who lose them, so if you lose something please do message the page, and if you find something then please do hand it into a member of our team. This goes for any patch that you visit too.
- We don’t allow dogs on our patch, and we also wouldn’t let you leave them in your car. So please do not bring a dog to the farm, other people have fears and allergies, plus the pumpkins are edible so we don’t want dogs doing their business anywhere near them.
- Make sure to charge up your phone or camera! We’re trying our best every year to get better and better, and this year we have a few surprises for some cool photo opportunities! If you put any on social media please do tag us – it’s great for us as a small business and we do love to see that our hard work has paid off!
- We accept both cash and card, so if you have some cash handy it’s a great idea to bring it – sometimes at busy moments we will have a cash queue and a card queue, you could then choose the smaller one rather than waiting for your time to pay via card – cash is king, after all!
- We are also growing crown prince squashes this year, which are the tastiest and best for home cooked recipes like pumpkin pie or pumpkin soup – these aren’t available for picking, but they will be available to be bought by our till and were still grown by us! They’re a real fan favourite and taste a lot better than the aesthetic pumpkins we have for you to pick to display.
- Leave the patch as you found it (minus the pumpkins you cut from their vines and then paid for). We don’t or want other people’s litter, but definitely understand that you need snacks for the big walks! We are not doing teas, coffees, food etc this year. It’s something we can hope to do in the future, but for now, if you could bring your snacks with you and take the rubbish away too, that would be appreciated by us farmers and the environment.
When you subscribe to the blog, we will send you an e-mail when there are new updates on the site so you wouldn't miss them.
