The crisp fall season is upon us. With fall comes warm apple cider, sweaters, pumpkin spice lattes and yes, pumpkin patches. Going to the local pumpkin patch can bring the whole fall experience together.
Check out these pumpkin patches that have stepped up their level of pumpkin picking.
Tigges Farm Produce and Pumpkin Patch, 12404 Weld County Rd. 64 1/2, Greeley
This 120-acre farm offers a one-of-a-kind holiday experience with a fall festival through October.
According to manager Gale Loeffler, the farm has a different attitude from other farms, and their themed weekend events help set them apart.
On Saturday and Sunday, the farm is having an “Old West Weekend” from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Their conestoga draft horses will be giving complimentary wagon rides to guests, and live music from western singer Vic Anderson will be held at their Activities Center.
Guests can enter and park for free and take a wagon into the field to pick a pumpkin for $0.30 per pound, or select a gourmet pie pumpkin for a little extra.
In another patch some unusual pink pumpkins are grown, and cost $0.90 per pound. A percentage of the proceeds is given to cancer research.
“Only three places in Colorado bought the seeds,” Loeffler said. ”We have about 70 beautiful pink pumpkins. They are great pie pumpkins.”
The pumpkin patch is open every day of the week from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Pumpkin Pickin’ Paradise, 24650 CO Hwy, Milliken
Since 1996, pumpkins have grown on eight acres on the Pumpkin Pickin’ Paradise property.
Through Halloween night, hundreds of pumpkins keep the original 100 year-old house company.
There are several monsters (and who knows what else) living in the homestead house, now called the “Haunted Shack.”
Owner Chris DePreist put another shack on the property which serves as the haunted maze.
There is also a gift store selling kid and adult costumes, accessories, yard and outdoor decor, pumpkin carving kits and much more.
The Bartels Farm Pumpkin Patch 3424 E Douglas Rd., Fort Collins
The Bartels Farm Pumpkin Patch is celebrating its 11th annual pumpkin patch. Come pick your own pumpkin starting at $0.50, take a hay ride for $2.00 per person, get lost in the corn maze for $8.00 and enjoy the farm animals and country atmosphere for free.
“A lot of people charge $13, $14 to get through the front gate. We don’t charge admission. Our hay ride has a charge because of the fuel cost, but our pumpkins are priced by size rather than by weight,” owner Nancy Bartels said.
The farm’s main attraction is its pumpkin patch, but Bartels says there is another thing guests can do with their pumpkins other than gutting and carving them.
“We have a pumpkin cannon. It’s just this old propane tank that an air compressor fills up, and then there is a release,” she said.
According to Bartels, the pumpkins can be shot up to six-tenths of a mile.
The farm’s fall festival runs every day from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. until Oct. 31.
Collegian A&E Writer Sierra Cymes can be reached at entertainment@collegian.com or on Twitter @sierra_cymes.
