The Best Place to Pick Pumpkins in Skaneateles, NY

When you have a family, the "Holiday Season" begins with Halloween, and includes Thanksgiving, Christmas (or X-mas, Hanukkah, whatever your family celebrates) and ends a few weeks after New Year's. Also, when you have a family, you take advantage of all the seasonal traditions. An apple pie doesn't taste as sweet if the family didn't go pick all the apples from a nearby orchard and a Jack-O-Lantern doesn't look as cool if your family didn't go pick out their own pumpkins.

Better yet, going to a pumpkin farm is much more affordable than buying pumpkins out of the bin at your local Walmart or grocery store. Why spend more for something that was less fun to get anyways?

If you are in the Fingerlakes Region during the 'pumpkin part' of the holiday season, there are a number of choices of pumpkin farms for your family to visit. However the best is, without a doubt, Tim's Pumpkin Patch located on Rose Hill Rd. in Marietta, NY. This is between Skaneateles and Manlius... and right off of Rte. 5 & 20 so it is very easy to find.

What makes Tim's Pumpkin Patch the best place to go to for families to pick pumpkins? To begin with, it's very large and has a huge selection of pumpkins to choose from. Pumpkins cost $3 at the most (and this is for a HUGE pumpkin!).

You won't just be picking pumpkins though! Stop by the petting zoo to view and feed goats, pigs, sheep, chickens, and much more. See the most adorable 'Guard Cow' you'll ever see. Tim's Pumpkin Patch is home to the largest pig I have ever seen... weighing 944 lbs.! (You don't have to be a kid to enjoy these animals and their friendly personalities.

Afterwards, the kids may enjoy running through a maze made of hay. My 11-month-old was simply amazed with the texture of the hay walls... however be warned that strollers will get stuck in some of the corners. So, if you have younger children, you may prefer to carry them through the maze!

Stop in to the Harvest House for coffee or food (more in the gift shop as well) where your younger children can play in the Grain Bin Play Area. This is like a giant sand box, using wheat and shelled corn instead of sand. The textures are a lot of fun for the kids, and there are more toys to entertain little hands. (A wonderful idea, though another warning for parents of younger children... supervise children when playing in anything of this nature! My son lasted an entire 10 fun filled minutes before trying to stuff shelled corn into his mouth.)

Though I missed out on this activity due to poor (who am I kidding, it was downright awful- but my family still had fun) weather, there are horse drawn carriage rides. $1 for children, $2 for adults.

Ahhh, and the gift shop is absolutely my favorite place! This is where you pay for the pumpkins you have piled into a wheelbarrow, and admire the gifts you can buy for your home (or Christmas gifts?) The selection is small, but when you're on a budget you like it better that way. I must have spent over $20 in the gift shop... and only bought one gift (a room spray with a wonderful aroma to it). My family must have bought 2 gallons (perhaps an exaggeration) of hot cider, one cup at a time at only $1 a cup before deciding to purchase a gallon of cider to bring home. (We can heat it up ourselves!)

The apple pie was delicious, as well as the caramel apple blossom... but if nothing else I would recommend buying a pack of the Caramel Apple Fudge. Yummy!

The comparison is very simple to make. You can buy pumpkins at Walmart for $6 apiece (yes, I even checked) or you can buy pumpkins at Tim's Pumpkin Patch for $3 apiece or less. Almost all of the other activities your family will enjoy are free, or can be done with the money you saved by staying away from Walmart for the day!

In summary, you should not go to a grocery or convenience store to pick pumpkins for your family, instead your family should make an outing to a pumpkin farm and make a day of it.The best place to do this (in the Fingerlakes Region of New York) is at Tim's Pumpkin Patch!