Pumpkin Picking at Arnprior Farm
This weekend I got to do one of the most fun Autumnal activities possible! I have wanted to go to a pumpkin patch for longer than I can remember, it's just such a quintessential American thing to do! But sadly, not something that you often find here in the UK(or at least not to my knowledge).
Luckily though, in the UK, a lot of American traditions are starting to catch on(although it often takes a while for them to make their way to Scotland), and at long last the pumpkin patch has become one of those things!
A little while back, I saw on Facebook a page advertising a Pumpkin Patch on a farm 45 minutes outside of Glasgow called Arnprior Farm, and this was the best new ever!
Opening day was last Saturday and my mum and I made sure we were there for opening at 10am. And it's just as well, because they were already busier than they had expected, they were having to use one of their fields as an overspill carpark.
When we got up to the patch, there was the lovely farmer(I'm presuming from the signs, that his name was Duncan) and his wife with their beautiful baby, that were directing everybody, chatting to people, answering any questions, with Duncan helping everyone he could to carry their pumpkins back to their cars, it was just a lovely, friendly atmosphere that made everybody feel really welcome!
The pumpkin patch itself has been designed so lovingly, it's really family friendly and is just picture perfect. Genuinely, it is just as cute as you think it will be. There are hand painted signs telling you all about how the pumpkin patch started(which I presume was for the kids, but I appreciated them too!), photogenic hay bales and signs, handmade kids games(I think giant chess maybe?), you could tell a lot of thought had gone into this place.
The pumpkins are amazing, the have loads of different sizes, we bought a small one, a medium on and two extremely large pumpkins that are honestly the most giant pumpkins that I have ever seen in my life! They look like they should be turned into Cinderella's carriage! Altogether it cost £28, which I know, does seem a bit on the expensive side when you can get pumpkins at Morrisons for £1.50.
However, this is about the whole experience, it's a small family business, of which you can tell there has been a lot of hard work and care put into. And this is a venture that up until August, nobody could have known if all that hard work was actually going to pay off(and it certainly did!).
I think it's nice to support local businesses and I think for the experience that we had, it actually wasn't that expensive(bearing in mind that we did go a bit overboard buying 4 pumpkins, you don't need to do that!).
And obviously everybody else was thinking the same because the place was ridiculously busy all day and by 3pm on the Sunday they had sold out of all their pumpkins! They had to source pumpkins from elsewhere just so they can open up again this Saturday!
I just think it's great, Duncan was telling us(whilst very kindly carrying our VERY heavy pumpkins back to our car for us, saving me a few trips back and forth!), that the whole idea had started off as a joke between him and his wife, and just look at the success they had with it! I'm sure when they started it, not even they could have predicted that success!
So I would like to say a huge thank you to the family run pumpkin patch at Arnprior farm because they gave us and everybody else there a really great morning out on a beautifully sunny, crisp Autumn day and have hopefully started a lovely annual Autumn tradition in this family!
I really hope they continue to do this every year, because it really was so much fun!
Wishing them lots of good luck with this great venture and well done for bringing it to us, I greatly appreciate that!
Yep, I am so aware that I have went a bit crazy with the pumpkins this year, I clearly have an obsession(not all of these are from Arnprior, just the two giant ones, the one next to them and the second one in at the front), and I'm not even sorry about it!
If you are nearby this area(and have a car to get you there), you really should drop by this place, I
can't recommend it enough! But remember to get there early and bring your wellies! It is a farm after all!
I hope you all enjoy the pictures and the post(I will get back to more beauty things soon, but I couldn't not do a post about this place) and I hope that you are having a great October!
We can't wait to get carving these mammoth pumpkins, I will upload photos of that very soon!
Love,
Kayleigh Rose
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2 comments
Thanks so much for posting this! Having lived in North America before pumpkin patches are something I miss so much! We trekked to one in Northumberland last year and I was devastated to find a field of hay with some morrison looking pumpkins hidden underneath - what a joke! I have been convincing my husband we need to take the 2 hour+ trek to Arnprior this year after seeing them on Facebook but he keeps saying what if it's as good as the one I made us go to last time, your pictures have convinced me it's defo worth the trip and hopefully they'll win my husband over too!!! thanks!!
ReplyDeleteHey! Oh I'm glad you liked it! That's a shame you didn't enjoy the pumpkin farm you visited in Northumberland last year! I can't speak for the one you visited, but I really enjoyed our visit to Arnprior and from what I can tell from their Facebook posts, it looks like they have put even more effort into the farm this year, so I really do think you would enjoy it if you went! We had a great time and the owners were so lovely, friendly and helpful. Such a great atmosphere! I really hope you get the chance to go and I hope this helped convince your husband! Please let me know if you make the journey! We are going again in 2 weeks, I can't wait! Thank you so much for reading the post and commenting! <3 x
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