pick your own, at the
Pumpkin Patch
Over twenty varieties of pumpkins
Pick Your Pumpkins
We have three pumpkin patches within easy walking distance as well as pre-picked pumpkins to choose from. Grab a wheelbarrow or pumpkin wagon and find the perfect pumpkin.
Farm Fables Pumpkin Patch (four acres)– a two minute walk from the entrance, just past the playgrounds
Bigger Pumpkin Patch (three acres) — a five minute walk from the entrance. Follow the gravel path along the pond
Biggest Pumpkin Patch (eleven acres) — a seven mintue walk from the entrance. Keep walking along the path.
COVID -19 Notice: we are not offering wagon rides wagon rides this year due to the need for social distancing.
Take a hayride to the Big Pumpkin Patch
Climb into the wagon, find your spot on the blanket of hay, and listen to the driver tell you about the farm. Explore acres of tangled vines laden with pumpkins of every shape and size. We have over 25 varieties, from baby pumpkins that fit in the palm of your hand to giants to monsters that will challenge the strongest member of your group.
Our gentle giant draft horses will pull the hayride wagon for an authentic experience.
Treinen Rule #1 – Everyone must carry their own pumpkin
How to choose a pumpkin
- Choose a pumpkin that you can carry to the hay wagon without hurting yourself. Lift with your legs, not your back.
- Gently clean off mud. We provide a pumpkin wash so you can clean up before you head home.
- Keep one hand under the pumpkin’s bottom. Lift and carry it from the bottom, not by the stem.
- Do not roll the pumpkin on the ground. It may have a hard shell, but you don’t want to risk damaging it by grinding dirt or gravel into its skin.
- Check your pumpkin for soft spots that can indicate rot.
- Your pumpkin can last all month if you’re careful. Keep it in a the shade, and move to a cool place, like a garage or basement if gets very hot outside. Protect it from frost, as a hard frost can damage the surface and invite rot.
- Have a pattern in mind? Bring it with you to find the right pumpkin to fit it.
- Make your carved pumpkin last longer. Molds and bacteria make your pumpkin rot, so disinfect the surface before you carve. Wash your pumpkin in a mild bleach solution and then dry before carving. Use clean carving tools.
- Make it last even longer. Carved pumpkins dry out and collapse eventually. Revive your pumpkin by placing it a bucket of water (or a garbage bag with water) for a few hours.
- Don’t carve until you are ready to display it. Keep it out of extreme heat and protect from frost.
- Power tools make carving big pumpkins much easier.
History of pumpkin carving
For thousands of years, people have been scooping out gourds, turnips, beets, and potatoes, and putting candles inside them to use as lanterns. In the British Isles, the flickering lights of the lanterns reminded people of the ghostly lights that hovered at over peat bogs and marshes at night. The people called the lights will-o’-the-wisp, pixie light, friar’s lantern, hinkypunk, corpse candle, hobby lantern, rolling fire, fool’s fire, and jack-o’-lantern.
British immigrants to America brought their customs with them. All Hallows Eve became Halloween, and pumpkins became the vegetable of choice for carving jack-o’-lanterns. Today’s trick-or-treaters don’t carry real grinning jack-o’-lanterns from door to door, but they are often greeted by their glowing apparitions on their neighbors’ porches, carved into scary faces, cheerful faces, funny faces, movie stars, presidential candidates, symbols, logos… And we still put lights inside them.
Jack-o’-lanterns, also called will-o’-the-wisp
Irish turnip jack-o’-lantern from the early 20th century
Turnip jack-o’-lanterns, also called “punkies”
Modern carving of a Cornish jack-o’-lantern made from a turnip