Pumpkin Picking Fun

Yesterday I took my girls to the pumpkin patch at the Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield. If you were in Denver yesterday, you know the day was pure autumn splendor; sunny and warm with beautifully colored trees in every direction.

I've never been to the Chatfield location of the botanic gardens. The grounds were lovely, even now in the fall. The pumpkin patch was immense, a huge field with all kinds of little paths leading to all kinds of pumpkins. You can find whatever you might be looking for: big, small, green, orange or green-and-orange. I've never been to a pumpkin patch and I think it's a great way to select your pumpkins. You get to hunt for the perfect one and actually pull it off the vine.

Two pieces of advice, however, for anyone thinking about going:

1) If it's going to be 85 degrees, just skip it. My girls were overheated and crabby almost instantly. And it wasn't actually 85 degrees. I think it was more like 70. It's a long hike from the car to the patch, then there's hunting for pumpkins, paying for them and getting back to the car. Which brings me to--

2) Bring a wagon. Pumpkins are heavy! and big! and it's a long way to the car! Everyone else there already knew this, and I guess it seems obvious, but the thought hadn't occurred to me. I found three small pumpkins I thought I could get back to the car, but had to abandon them shortly before checkout to deal with my ill-tempered children.

Here is the pumpkin we came home with, which my friend gave us surely out of sympathy. My daughter happily carried it all the way back to the car, as if she hadn't just thrown the tantrum that caused me to abandon my three super-cool pumpkins. She hopes to carve a jack-o-lantern and make pie with it.