Pick your own pumpkins
Hard to believe, Halloween is just around the corner! And if you are planning to go out pumpkin hunting this weekend, here are my top 5 pumpkin patch recommendations in the Bay Area:
Webb Ranch, located just off 280 in Portola Valley, is a newly-certified organic farm. Throughout the spring, summer and fall, the farm stand
Webb Ranch Pumpkin Patch
offers locals fruits and vegetables from their own and nearby farms. On weekends in October, in addition to many kinds of pumpkins, Webb Ranch offers pony rides, a bounce house, a haunted house and pumpkin-weight guessing contest.
Half Moon Bay hosts an annual Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival, usually the 3rd weekend in October. This 2-day event pays homage to all things pumpkin, including a contest for the largest (heaviest) pumpkin. Along highway 92, you will find several pumpkin patches, including Lemos Farms and Pastorino Farms, both catering to families with hay rides, pony rides and Halloween decorations (Pastorino has been there forever, I used to visit as a kid!). Just south of where 92 meets highway 1, Arata Pumpkin Farms offers a good option for families with older kids, featuring loads of pumpkins, pony and hay rides, a haunted barn and petting zoo.
Festive fall gourds
Ardenwood Farms, a historic farm located in Fremont, is a wonderful visit any time of year. During October, it becomes that much more special, with many pumpkins and gourds to choose from, a hay maze and hay hill, as well as a Halloween train that runs on select evenings in October.
For the third year in a row, Marin Mommies has named the Peterson’s Farm Pumpkin Patch in Petaluma one of their favorites. Located on Gossage Avenue off of Petaluma Boulevard North, the farm offers all sorts of wonders, including Scottish Highland cattle, ducks, geese, sheep and even bees behind plexi-glass in the barn. The best part, the Marin Mommies gush, is the price! This is one pumpkin patch that offers reasonable prices on all varieties. And i you are looking for other activities this Halloween weekend, be sure to check out the Marin Mommies list of Weekend Events.
Clancy’s Christmas Trees and Pumpkin Patch, located on the corner of 7th Avenue & Lawton, near the UC Med Center, in San Francisco, is local favorite, serving the community since 1949. Offering pumpkins, gourds, corn stalks and Indian corn, this patch is worth a visit!
What is your favorite pumpkin patch in the Bay Area?
Photos courtesy of Kitchen Gadget Girl
- If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
- Share
- Prev/Next
9 Responses
Looks like you have lots of great pumpkin farm options in the Bay Area!! What a fun, fall activity!!
I agree – although interestingly enough, today it is about 88F, not necessarily fall weather. Always cracks me up to look at family pumpkin patch photos with all of us in our t-shirts and shorts
We’ve been to Lemos Farm for some birthday parties – it’s nice, but the “train” ride is kinda cheesy.
We’ve also been to Ardenwood Farms – that is pretty cool. We went when they had the cornfield maze going on. Took a long time to get out. (hint: don’t go with kids in strollers)
the last time we went to Ardenwood, my kids loved going on the tractor/hay ride, but enjoyed the maze way more. They spent lots of time going around and around in the maze.
We are off to Lemos Farms this weekend for a birthday (I know, during the Pumpkin Festival) – my kids have enjoyed the train ride in the past, but they were younger and everything is more exciting then. It will be interesting to see how it goes now that they are older. Have you been down to Arata Farms?
I will have to check out Petersen’s, my kids are almost beyond the pumpkin patch trips. May be my last year.
Well, here is an update! Cindy let me know that this year Ardenwood Farms is not having a pumpkin patch!Sorry if I have led you on a wild goose chase, hope you can check out one of the other local farms.
[...] this talk about pumpkin patches and pumpkin hunting had me craving a pumpkin-based cookie this week. Searching through my cookbooks, I found an [...]
We love Adobe Pumpkin Patch in Petaluma at the crossroads of Adobe and Washington – huge beautiful field of flowers, pumpkins, thoughtful gifts and tons of vintage tractors for climbing:)
Very good blog site!
See Pete’s Pumpkin Patch video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7VVI4h_ja8
- JM!