Pumpkin Patches Are Not Just for Charlie Brown

I was visiting my friend PJ Mullen’s blog a few weeks ago when he put the thought of pumpkin patches in my head. I commented that we didn’t have things like that in small town Arkansas. Then I thought to myself that statement didn’t make much sense. If you can’t grow fruits and vegetables in rural America then where can you grow them? So I went home and asked Arica if we had any pumpkin patches in our area.

She proceeded to do some research and found that we had two within about 20 miles. She did some more reading and told me which one was the best. We went and had an awesome time. The results of our visit are detailed below.

Here we are upon arrival.

After that we visited the petting zoo. Braden did not like the horse.

He did like the rabbits.


He didn’t really care about the baby ducks. He was too busy looking at the scary chickens to his right.

Then we went to the pumpkin patch. Braden picked out two pumpkins right away.

Then we visited the hay covered playground. Braden could not go on the slide, but he had fun anyway.

Then we moved on to my favorite part of the day. The pumpkin patch had a John Deere lawn mower pulled train. The cars were made from 55 gallon drums that were painted John Deere Green and turned into train cars. There were several kids on the train. Braden was the youngest by far, and he was the only kid riding all by himself. At first I thought maybe Arica and I would be voted parents of the year by our fellow pumpkin patchers. Then the ride started and it was all ok. Braden had so much fun. He rode around the entire premises with his arm resting on the side of the cart. He smiled and laughed the whole way. The only time he got mad was when we took him out of the car at the end of the ride. It was awesome.



Finally we closed out the day with a hay ride. Braden fell asleep for part of it. Of course after all this fun he was a very tired boy.

This was my first visit to a pumpkin patch. Before this my only knowledge of a pumpkin patch was Charlie Brown camping out all night looking for the Great Pumpkin. Needless to say I had an amazing time even though we didn’t see the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, or even a pumpkin pie. I am certain that this will become a family tradition for Braden, Arica, and I. When we have another rugrat we will bring them too.