We went to the Cawdor Pumpkin Patch but weren’t too impressed.

Now before I dive in, I want to admit, I could be completely wrong. Maybe what we saw and experienced is what we were supposed to. Maybe our expectations were just a little too high. Maybe if Dearest Son was 3, it would have been better. Maybe.

We found the place easily enough. We drove to a little village called Cawdor (of Macbeth fame) and headed towards the school. I was surprised to find we were to park in the school grounds then walk down a little bit into a field, as I had expected them to have their own parking but no big deal.

You need to book a 2-hour slot before you go which we had done. We had a nice little stroll through a field and found a lovely, welcoming arch to the pumpkin patch.

I was quite excited when I saw this!

When we got into the field, we were met by a lady who checked our ticket and then we were in. I measured my height in pumpkins.

Then we were all set to get a wheelbarrow (the squeakiest one in the field obviously), and set off to get a pumpkin. I did take a few scenic shots of course, to give you a feel for the place.

I even did a little more posing.

We took our time picking 2 pumpkins. This was mainly because a lot of them were rotten or damaged. I didn’t notice a price list or any sort of clue about charging when I came in but I knew what to expect so we kept to smaller ones. That was until Dearest Son found one he wanted and put it in the wheelbarrow – we found out they wanted £10 for that so it got put back in the field.

We saw a lot of this:

I don’t mean to sound picky but that’s quite an off-putting sight and it was everywhere. They have staff. I saw one girl going round collecting abandoned wheelbarrows from the field. I can only assume they were abandoned because no decent pumpkins could be found to be put in them.

Would it really be so hard to gather up the rotten ones and remove them? Or put the slightly damaged ones on a ‘price reduced’ table? Just a thought.

They do have a play area set aside for the kids – haybales etc and a ‘trail’ you can walk although we didn’t do that. It looked nice, little fairy lights in the woods type of thing. You pay £5 per person to go to them and Dearest Son didn’t fancy that.

There was a cafe which we came to at the end to pay for our pumpkins. That’s when I saw a line of pumpkins with prices on them. It does say on their website that prices start at £3 but there were tiny little decorative squash at £2.50 each, then the smallest pumpkins started at £4 each.

I said cafe – it was a large shed with overpriced cakes and coffees. I know, I know, I don’t ‘go out’ for coffee. I have a kitchen and a kettle but I quite fancied a ‘pumpkin spiced’ beverage until I realised they wanted another £4 for that and I have a whole lot of them at home (box of 8 cost me 89p). No contest.

Am I sounding cheap or frugal? I’m hoping for sensible considering how tight our household budget is. Paying £8 for 2 pumpkins was a luxury for us and I only wanted to do it because 1. our 2 pumpkins were so poor this year (and still green on the windowsill) and 2. I wanted Dearest Son to experience the whole ‘October pumpkin picking’ thing.

He didn’t enjoy it.

He wanted to go home.

So we paid for our pumpkins and did just that!

Now I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. I didn’t hate it. I realise they are only in their second year and the trail/play areas looked quite nice.

But….

There are issues:

Mouldy, rotten pumpkins EVERYWHERE.

That ‘I’m being robbed’ feeling.

The ‘this is for the snobby folk’ feeling (we call them “What Whats” in our house).

The ‘maybe it would be better if you were a toddler’ feeling – they’re happy to just run around in a field aren’t they?

Am I being too harsh?

Is this what pumpkin picking is meant to be like? That’s a serious question because we’ve never been before. I’ll be honest, we won’t be rushing back. We will be taking more precautions in future when we grow our own so we don’t need anybody else’s, that’s for sure.

I haven’t carved them yet. Actually I just want to cook them but I’ve been told I need to carve them first so we can get the most out of them, if you get my meaning?!

So, let me know – did I expect too much – like seats in a cafe? Or is it always like this? I welcome advice from more experienced pumpkin patch pickers!