October 2019
You may have seen our round-up of ‘Where to Pick a Pumpkin near Doncaster’ blog.
PYO Pumpkins is something we’d never actually done! We’ve carved them loads of times, but bought from the shop.
This year, we wanted to get outside and pick our own.
We picked the rainiest day of the weekend (Sunday) and headed to Eastfield Farm – wellies, hats and scarves on! Unfortunately it was closed due to the excess rain (parent fail – should have checked before we set off) but hooray, their sister site School Farm in West Drayton, Retford was still open and pumpkins available. So we headed there. Anyone with kids knows that if you say you’ve been saying that you’re going to pick pumpkins all week, then you’re going to pick pumpkins wherever they might be.
It actually didn’t take all that long to get to the other farm. We sloshed our way out in to the field, which was huge! The rain didn’t spoil anything, it was great fun. Lots of puddles and mud, so the kids were in their element. We picked a range of different coloured pumpkins and the prices ranged from 50p for tiny ones, through to around £6.00 for really large ones.
We got a selection to save for halloween. Apparently they will last if we don’t carve them yet and keep them cool – so they’re currently looking fabulous in our garden. I have a brilliant pumpkin display to look at through my kitchen window.
My youngest Mumbler particularly loves growing things and he was excited to see the pumpkins in the field. He was running from one to another and would literally have picked the whole field if he could! One thing to note is that you may need to take your own cutters to cut the pumpkins loose.
We got some fab ideas for decorating pumpkins too – that don’t necessarily involve carving! How great are these designs. I checked out some pens to use for decorating pumpkins here.
My daughter has also asked to make Pumpkin Pie? Never made this in my life so if you have any recipes please share! Check out this recipe from last year that The Pantry gave us for a Pumpkin Power Knickerbocker Glory.
Whilst in Retford, we popped up the road to a great little farm shop Thaymar Ice Cream. We had hot chocolates and scones (adults) and the kids had amazing ice cream.
We will definitely pick our own pumpkins again, we had a fun few hours, even though it was raining. Got the kids outdoors. School Farm had some cows and goats, so we spent a while looking at those too.
Head to Eastfield Farm, Doncaster Road, Tickhill, DN11 9JD or School Farm, Ollerton Road, DN22 8DB
See our full list of Halloween Activities for half term here.
