Being an American transplant in London, I've been dying to go to a pumpkin patch since the weather started turning cooler, the leaves started falling and out popped the scarves. Carving pumpkins is my favourite thing to do round Halloween time. (That along with watching Hocus Pocus on about a bagillion times!) I did a quick google search for pumpkin picking, and from pumpkinpatchesandmore.org, I was pointed in the direction of Crockford Bridge Farms.
From the website, it looked pretty sweet! It was more than just pick your own, including a restaurant, coffee shop, ice cream, aquarium, and farm shop.
Sadly, I had fooled myself into thinking I might have the same experience back at home: hay rides, hot apple cider, pumpkin pie and cake, rows and rows of pumpkins in a patch, maybe a corn maze. Yeah, not really. They did have a TeePee though, which I found kinda odd. And they certainly had enough tall corn to do a maze!
It was more like a garden centre than anything. I can't really describe it accurately because I've never been to a place like it before. They had loads of fish tanks, complete with angel fish to puffer fish. They also sold fireworks for Guy Fawkes Night, with names like Big Mama's and Devil's Crotch (or something of that variety). And they had a huge horse-sized unicorn and camel stuffed animals. The farm shop bit had the pumpkins, and along with it various jams, cakes, and fresh produce. It even had an American section with the likes of Stove Top and Skippy peanut butter in it.
As for the pumpkins, instead of being out in the field where they might get "stem rot", they were packed into giant wooden crates to pick from.
I can't say the trip was all for naught though, as I did get super excited about picking out my pumpkin! I even bought a pumpkin carving kit to go with it. I guess the whole Halloween in the UK thing might never catch on. At least the ride to and from was pretty scenery. read more