Pick-Your-Own at Baugher's

Last week I went to a Pick-Your-Own farm that was near me called Baugher's Orchard and Farm.  I originally wanted to do apple picking but that season is over here so I went pumkin picking which was just as fun.  There were lots of families and groups of people of all ages taking part in the adventure of finding a pumpkin to call their own.

It starts with a hayride out to the fields, once there you are set off to find your pumpkin.  There were a variety of pumpkins: big, small, orange, green, white even tan colored.  (The farm's market had some oddly shaped pumpkins even a multi-colored one.) Interestingly enough, a pumpkin is a fruit as it is the part of the plant that holds the seeds like an apple or tomato. They had some trivia cards up for while you wait for the hay ride to take you out there.  Thought I'd share the wisdom.  Another interesting fact is pumpkins are 90% water.  Cool stuff.

I went with some friends to the farm to share in the adventure.  The day before we were going to go it snowed, I still wanted to go and a couple of them were willing to join me.

While most of the pumpkins were a little buried under a thin layer of snow, I was set on finding a perfect pumpkin. You can see the snow in most of these pictures, if not the mud that followed its melting.

By the time we got there, most of the good pumpkins of the big and orange variety that people typically associate with, and use for Halloween carving were picked.  Left behind were some that were broken and some small decorative type pumpkins.  I ended up finding a part of the patch with some small white and orange pumpkins which I thought would be great table decorations for the holidays so I picked it out and brushed off the mud.  As there were a bunch of these in the area my friend grabbed one of his own as you can see in the picture on the right.  We also found some tiny orange ones that looked just as festive.

The adventurer in me wanted to explore more of the pumpkin patch so I got a few more pictures of what I found.  Glad I wore my mud friendly shoes because there certainly was a lot of it as we walked through the patch.

There were lots of families there and one way that Baugher's made the patch even more exciting was setting up a simple slide of large tubing and some hay bales that you can see of the distance of this photo on the left.  When we got closer we saw there was a bit of a mud puddle at the bottom and some carefully placed pumpkins so the slider won't land in the mud.  Needless to say, as big of a mud lover as I am, I was not about to slide down that. It was cold out, and cold and wet don't go well together. But I did see that some adventurous kids did go down, hopefully stopping at the bottom before getting to the mud part. Below is part of the patch that had a bunch of the large orange pumpkins that are great for carving.

Also at Baugher's was a petting zoo.  Most of the animals were typical farm animals like pigs, chickens, sheep, goats and turkeys, though we did come across a lama.  The lama was nice enough to pose for a picture.

After the trip to the pumpkin patch and the petting zoo on the farm we stopped at the market to buy some more fresh from the farm treats.  I got some apples, acorn squash and a spaghetti squash.  I still need to figure out what to do with those, so on the hunt for recipes.  My friends picked out some dried fruit packages and a pie from the market. 

There are lots of Pick-Your-Own farms out there so no matter where you are you can join in the fun.  All you got to do is wait for the fruit or veggie to be in season for picking then go for it.  Some have for strawberry, cherry, peach and apple picking but you have to come at the right time of the year.  For example if you want to go to pick strawberries you would need to go in the spring time, for peaches go in the summer time, apple season is near the end of summer through the early parts of fall.  Each farm will tell you when to come for the pick-your-own items, and some will have markets with the items fresh from the farm that they pick for you.

While the picking season my be over for my area of the world it could still be open for you.  Or perhaps it's just getting started.

Enjoy some farm fresh produce, Meet Me Outdoors.