A Day at the Richmond Country Farm Pumpkin Patch
Entrance
According to the calendar and the trusted weather people on our local news channels, autumn officially starts in September and ends in December. With the spirit of Halloween, the return of Charlie Brown specials and trees shedding leaves coloured like flickering fires, I would argue that no month embodies the season more than October. And perhaps there is no symbol more ubiquitous with autumn than the iconic pumpkin.
Whether it manifests in your food and drinks (will we ever move past the infamous pumpkin spice latte? According to Starbucks, probably not) or on your neighbours doorsteps with an intricate carving of a celebrity’s face lit by a lone candle, there’s no denying the power of the orange fruit.
So rather than fighting it, my family visited The Pumpkin Patch in Richmond last Sunday for the first time, drawn in by joyful Instagram photos and an inescapable need to steal one last gulp of fresh air before the impending forecast of rain, and bitter November temperatures that lay ahead.
Due to COVID-19 circumstances, we bought tickets online for a particular time slot and arrived accordingly, and with masks at the ready, though the latter was not officially required. We circled through different parking lots, and were helpfully directed to the one for the pumpkin patch walking tour, which we had opted over the wagon ride.
There were a few things that became clear as soon as we ditched the parking lot concrete for the woodsy clearing. The first was that it was a good thing we had all worn sweaters beneath our jackets. The second, more unexpected revelation, was that there were dinosaurs.
Interestingly, and for no apparent reason other than decorative fun, there was a large scorpion and large dinosaur greeting guests before the pumpkin patch. With a few pumpkins at their feet, and flowers in their mouths, they bobbed their mechanical heads up and down every so often, Jurassic Park noises and all.
Wandering past the prehistoric animal, we reached a mingling sort of area from which guests could select which patch they wanted to visit first, like a choose-your-own-adventure kind of deal.
Here, there was also a smattering of brightly coloured concession options; a food truck boasting at least four different types of poutine, a stand for mini-donuts, hot chocolate, hot cider.
It was a picturesque scene blessed by a sweeping, golden afternoon light; children running around the grounds, friends and couples huddled together or enjoying warm beverages around select tables, obligatory photo ops in the seats of charmingly rusted trucks, most bigger and taller than anything you would see in the city.
Entrance to Pumpkin Patch 2
Though it was cold enough to justify multiple layers and make me wish I’d brought a hat, the tantalizingly sweet scent of warm, cinnamon sprinkled donuts was almost enough to make me forget the way that my fingers, curled tightly around my phone, were starting to numb. That I’d pulled my hair back in braids didn’t really help with my plummeting body temperature, but hey, I figured the pictures would make up for it.
The first patch was a large space, a field of pumpkins surrounded mostly by mud that led you to an optional corn maze.
The mud, which you had to trek through in order to get virtually anywhere in this patch, was deep and sticky, and worked a lot like how I imagine black holes do, pulling your shoe deep into its murky brown depths.
Corn Maze
Part of me felt like I was in an episode of the prematurely cancelled show, The Swamp Thing, but not necessarily in a bad way. There was something inherently freeing about traipsing around in mud and trying to avoid getting snagged in the face by tall, reedy, corn stalks. It worked well within the very concept of the patch, which in many ways, was designed to recall fuzzy feelings of childhood and simpler times before one had to deal with life’s bigger problems of final exams and finances.
After all, there were no actual high-level, important reasons to spend time walking around to find a pumpkin to take home---frankly I don’t even like eating pumpkin pie---except for the fun of it, which is perhaps an important motivation in itself.
Garden
The second patch was considerably less muddy and considerably more flowery. The pumpkin section of it was the first sliver of land one faced upon entrance, with a few rows of pumpkins to pluck from the dirt.
The rest of the space, though, was filled with different species of flowers, and carefully placed objects that made for good pictures; a bicycle with a basket of flowers, bright red and yellow tanning chairs, a truck with a sign that read, ‘You look marvelous’ and ‘Make today beautiful’.
Doowop and legends like Etta James or modern equivalents by the likes of Leon Bridges, crooned from speakers cleverly placed by a large tractor, the centerpiece of a garden that was still beautiful despite its current state of decay. There was even a small viewing point where one could walk up the steps to admire the whole garden, the faded summer colours, and dry, crinkled petals lending itself a macabre brilliance.
It was from here that we each picked a pumpkin before heading back, each of us scooping up a different shaped (yet reasonably weighted) pumpkin into our free plastic bags. We took an order of hot mini-donuts for the road, our soles tired yet satisfied, and above all grateful that we’d worn boots.
In the words of well-loved Canadian literary heroine Anne Shirley Cutthbert: “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” A relaxed Sunday afternoon spent with family meandering at a local pumpkin patch made me glad too.
Tips:
Wear layers! (e.g. sweater, reasonably warm coat, hat and gloves) Your future self will thank you.
Wear boots that can withstand mud and/or shoes that you’re not super attached to, in case they get dirty, because let’s face it: they most likely will. Don’t be the person that has to wrap plastic around their shoes or literally take them off---just ask the two people we saw last Sunday.
Don’t bring or wear things that you’d be scared to drop in dirt, because if you do, it will be brutal. Again, witnessed it firsthand and felt deep sympathy.
Choose your pumpkin near the end to avoid lugging it around as you take photos or explore the corn maze.
Buy the mini donuts! So simple yet so good.
Pumpkin
https://youtu.be/TmjI2q9QxPc