This weekend was a first for the Ellis family – as it was the first time any of us had gone pumpkin picking.
Rupert is a massive fan of getting out and about, Emilia is always beautifully behaved wherever we go and Jess and I just like spending time together – so it seemed perfect.
Let me first start out by telling you a little bit about the premise of the day in case you’re thinking of heading there yourself.
The Patch is a working farm area, Mount Mill Farm to be exact, based in Wicken, which is just over the border from us in Northamptonshire, so around a 15-minute drive.
The fields are packed full of pumpkins and you can literally go and pick whichever ones you want, with different prices assigned to the different sizes. There was a tractor ride with cute little trailers on the back, a stationary tractor for kids to sit on and a ton of picture opportunities. It was set to be a lovely day, it’s just that Rupert decided that he wasn’t in the mood for uneven ground or walking or anything for that matter. He started out cutely trying to pick up the biggest pumpkins he could find before begging to be picked up. The problem was that I had Emi in the baby carrier and Jess was carrying the wheelbarrow – and before you say it no he didn’t want to go in the ‘barrow either.
So, we did our best to navigate through the pumpkin-filled fields and found ourselves four lovely ones to take home – one each for all the family.
However, we wanted to make a day of it, so we soldiered on regardless, despite Rupert’s insistence that he couldn’t possibly walk another step and his scream-crying that was triggered by the slightest little trip or bump.
Jess and I decided that we’d have one final try at cheering him up and took him over to the wavy slides before Jess walked him round the hay maze and got into the queue for the tractor ride. He loved the wavy slides, but then lost his mind because Jess wouldn’t let him drive the real tractor – yes, he was that child.
However, we gave him some food, saw some friends of ours by chance and then he was a completely different boy. The food itself was delicious and I had a locally sourced hot dog and Jess had a BBQ jackfruit roll and a hot chocolate. We then added a couple of naughty cakes as a treat and got Rupert an apple juice. All reasonably priced, and the perfect choice for a colder day out. One thing I did notice though, in a place that had gone all out to have pumpkin-themed everything, even down to the colours of the wavy slides, they didn’t have pumpkin flavouring for the coffee. Missing a trick?
After we ventured back out we got some lovely photos, including seeing how tall Rupert was In pumpkins, he enjoyed himself and we even got him in the wheelbarrow on the way back to the car.
Overall, The Patch was a lovely day out. You can tell that they’ve put thought into absolutely everything and especially in these Covid times just having a staggered arrival time makes a difference.
The pumpkins are a little bit expensive, but you pay for the experience rather than just picking one up in a supermarket. It’s great for taking younger children as there are some fun picture opportunities but, in my opinion, I think it suits slightly older children, from three upwards. The only reason I say this is that is because the hay bales, the maze and the tractor ride all lend themselves to children who maybe need a little less supervision.
Would I go back? Yes, just maybe when Ru and Emi are a little bit older.
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