Pumpkin Patches – What to Look For
Some families make a tradition out of going out each year to pumpkin patches to find the pumpkins that they are going to use that year for Haloween. If this is not something that you do with your family, but you love Halloween, this may be something you want to make time to do each year. It gives your family something to do together that they are going to look forward too, and you can usually find much better prices on pumpkins when you go to a farmer or a patch where they are grown. You skip the markup of the middle man when you get them this way.
You may not have much luck finding good pumpkin patches if you live in the middle of a large city, but you can usually find them just about anywhere else. Look where you would normally see your local farmers market set up and that is where you are probably going to find the pumpkin patches that you want to visit with your family. There are always some that are open earlier than others, but you do not want to get and then carve your haloween pumpkins too early or they are going to rot before this Halloween arrives. Unless that is the look you are going for, wait before you visit and choose your pumpkins.
When you get to the pumpkin patches, you may be tempted to run off to the largest of the pumpkins, grab them, and then go home. You want to take some time to make sure you are getting good pumpkins. If you are just grabbing some to stack up on your yard and you have no plans to carve them, you do not have to be quite as choosy. However, if you are going to carve your prizes from the pumpkin patches, you want to make sure you have a good pumpkin that is healthy and looks good all the way around for best results.
Large pumpkins can be great, but they are not always the best. Instead, you want to pick up the pumpkin and see if there are any large flaws that would get in the way of your carving ideas. Not all pumpkins in the pumpkin patches are going to make for great carving pumpkins. If you want to make homemade pumpkin pie, these are great – otherwise, look them over for gouges and other imperfections. You also want to make sure the pumpkins you are taking home from the pumpkin patch are the same color all the way around. Some bleach in the sun making them orange on one side but lighter on the other.
This halloween when you buy from pumpkin patches, you are probably going to pay for the pumpkin by the pound. If you get one from a store, it probably has a set price. If you are going to get a very large one, you are going to pay more for it because it could be quite heavy. However, even when buying by the pound at your local pumpkin patch, you are probably getting a better price on what is probably a better pumpkin.
