Halloween at Forage Farm, Vale of Glamorgan – pick your own pumpkins near Cardiff (AD)

Thank you to Forage Farm for providing us with complimentary entry and a pumpkin each in exchange for this post

We had such a fun afternoon at Forage Farm’s Pick Your Own Pumpkin event. We all ended up covered in mud but we laughed so, so much as we picked our own pumpkins and made our way around the maize maze which had turned into a real-life game of Stuck In The Mud due to all the rain.

My children and I arrived at the Penllyn Estate (just down the road from the farm shop itself) early afternoon on Tuesday and stayed for around two hours.

We enjoyed exploring the site when we arrived – there are piglets, a tractor to climb on, covered hay bales made to look like giant spiders. The marquee where you pay for your pumpkins (£2-£10 dependent on size) also has a lovely colouring in area, plus spooky face painting (£5 per child) and a couple of hay bake/pumpkin set ups and spooky characters which make for great photo opportunities.

But my children, who are now 11, 10 and 7, were keen to get going with the pumpkin picking. They were excited to choose a wheelbarrow and took it in turns to push it as we wandered around one of the two pumpkin patches, deciding which ones we wanted to take home. They opted for classic nice big orange ones, although there were some smaller sized ones and some green ones too.

We’re going to carve them (we picked up a carving set and design templates at the payment desk in the marquee) and use the insides to make spicy pumpkin soup (a big favourite of mine at this time of year).

Our absolute highlight of the afternoon was the maize maze. I think this will go one of two ways with visitors at the moment – some will be put off by the sheer amount of mud caused by all the rain (it wouldn’t be the easiest place to navigate with smaller children) whereas others like us will find themselves creased with laughter trying to move around without wellies getting stuck in the mud.

There are warning signs outside, but we still didn’t expect to be as muddy as it was. So, naturally, we all came out covered in mud. My youngest child fell and, as you can see from this photo, his hand and clothes were covered. But we all laughed so much and had such fun in the outdoors.

Dotted around the maize are slightly spooky Halloween scenes and letters to find to spell out a spooky word.

After the maze my children warmed up with a cup of hot chocolate kindly gifted to them from iFeed Kitchen who are there all week with their street food.

The whole pumpkin-picking experience has really escalated in the last couple pf years: it just wasn’t a thing when my children were younger. We all loved seeing dressed up toddlers in wheelbarrows full of pumpkins and had a good discussion about how when I was a child we carved turnips and swedes, which were impossibly difficult!

There are very limited tickets available for PYO Pumpkins at Forage Farm. Entry costs £7.50 per car, while pumpkins cost between £2 and £10 depending on size. However tickets for their Christmas Experience, which runs from 25 November to 23 December. See the Forage Farm website for more information.

See my events guide for more ideas of family-friendly events and activities in and around Cardiff this half term. Also follow Cardiff Mummy Says on Instagram where I share lots more photos and ideas for days out, in particular in my Stories. 

For ideas on local days out, see the Cardiff section of Cardiff Mummy Says.