This past Sunday, we visited Hodge’s Farm and Pumpkin Patch with Brad’s parents.
My mom is going to read this post and wonder where Elliott’s pumpkin hat is that she knitted for him. I couldn’t wait for him to wear it to the pumpkin patch, but he’s been growing so fast that it no longer fits.
Hodge’s Farm has been around for over 100 years and is actually inside the Charlotte city limits (North East Charlotte, near Harrisburg). Besides the farm and pumpkin patch, they have horse riding lessons and a summer camp. It was once used as a dairy farm, but now is an equestrian center and beef cattle farm, specializing in grass fed beef. They also have goats and sheep.
Other activities were available for families besides pumpkin picking the day we visited, like hayrides and visiting the farm animals.
The older children seemed to love climbing on the bales of hay.
If you don’t want to trample through the pumpkin patch looking for the perfect pumpkin, pumpkins are available at the farm stand along with grass fed beef.
Wagons were available (and fairly easy to come by despite the crowd) for transporting your children and/or your pumpkins.
Elliott was a little young to really enjoy the whole pumpkin picking experience.
In the end, we left the pumpkin patch empty handed. Apparently we had missed the prime pumpkin time and most of the pumpkins that were left didn’t look so good. Our trip was short and was more of a photo opportunity and an excuse to get out of the house, but fun nonetheless.
Here are some lessons learned from our trip:
- Pumpkin Patches are ideal for ages 2+
- Go in early October to get the best selection of pumpkins
- No dogs allowed (poor Rascal had to wait in the car)
- Pumpkins at a pumpkin patch are much more expensive than the grocery store (their $10 pumpkin would have been $3.99 at Trader Joe’s), so what you’re really paying for is the experience
We would definitely visit Hodge’s Farm and Pumpkin Patch again, but next time, we’ll take into account our lessons learned. I’m in no hurry for Elliott to grow up, but I also think activities like this will be more fun once he can really take in the experience and interact more with the world around him.