In true ‘blogger’ style, last weekend we headed to everyone’s favourite autumn photo studio – aka, the pumpkin patch. The patch we ventured to this year for our pumpkin picking adventures was the fantastic Sunnyfields Farm!

Sunnyfields Farm isn’t our usual ‘pick your own’ farm we would go to, but I found out about it when I was writing my October half term round up as they are holding a Pumpkin Festival from the start to end of October.  A friend of mine visited and said it was great, so on Saturday we decided to pull on our wellies and waterproofs and head down to the fields of orange and see what we could find!
When we pulled up, we were directed in as the car park was absolutely jam-packed. The first thing I noticed were how many happy, smiling faces there were, pumpkins tucked under armpits, kids and dogs being pushed along in wheelbarrows and a really good feel family vibe.
As it had been raining for what felt like the whole week, I got the kids into their waterproofs and wellies and off we went. After a few splashes in muddy puddles we went into the farm where we were greeted with a mound of pre-picked pumpkins of all all shapes, sizes and colours.
Bypassing the already picked pumpkins housed in the marquee, we grabbed a wheelbarrow and set off down the field to go digging for our own!

Once we’d picked our produce we headed back to the marquee where we paid for our pumpkins (they are priced simply small, medium and large), brought our tokens for a ride on the tractor for later and I also decided to pay for the kids to carve their pickings whilst we were there…frankly I didn’t fancy picking up pumpkin seeds from my floor!
For the carving price (£2.50 each) you got a kit which contained pins, a carving knife and a big spoon for clearing out the innards. There were lots of tables set up with ‘pumpkin waste’ bowls and a wall of templates to choose from if you didn’t fancy going freestyle. I forgot how hard it was to scrape out pumpkin seeds [and of course I ended up doing both of the kids!]

After our tractor ride which took us around the field with a Halloween story as commentary, the kids just HAD to stop at the haybales that they’d been eye’ing up all afternoon and we spend a good while there whilst they climbed up the bales, jumped down the bales and had many hay fights – on repeat.

Final stop was a wash of our hands, ending the day with a delicious Marshfield Farm icecream whilst sat in muddy clothes in a wheelbarrow.
We left just like the people we’d seen earlier; with happy faces, full hearts, pumpkins nestled under armpits….and a lot more more mud on us than we’d arrived with!
If you’re super economical and want to use every inch of your plump pump there’s some fab pumpkin recipes on Pinterest.

Sunnyfields is based on Jacobs Gutter Lane in Totton, SO40 9FX. The pumpkin festival is now running daily from 10am-5pm until 31st October 2019.  You can find out more here.