(Not) Real Deal Road Trip #1
I’m in the Bay Area for the week. After an afternoon on sterile Sand Hill I treated myself to a drive through gorgeous Half Moon Bay. I had no idea this is Pumpkin Central. What made me do a double take is that I kept driving by places with big signs advertising “Pumpkin Farm” and “Pumpkin Patch,” but all I saw were huge dirt fields with rows and rows of pumpkins to buy. One such “farm” was actively being constructed by six guys with a white panel truck. They were rapid-fire throwing pumpkins out the back and neatly lining them up, fashioning them much as they might be spaced on a native patch.
In New England you generally either buy your pumpkin at the grocery store or farm stand, no pretenses at a “pumpkin patch”. Or you go to a real one and cut a pumpkin off the vine yourself. This California hybrid version was a new one on me.
I took a photo of the Half Moon Bay location that did the best job faking it out. But this proprietor did not actually call the place a “farm” or a “patch,” so they got style points for their humble “Pumpkins” sign.
And I hope I’m not becoming an East Coast snob…I love seeing regional differences like this.
Jules Pieri 
6 Responses to “(Not) Real Deal Road Trip #1”
So I guess you don’t believe in the Great Pumpkin either. In any event, I swear they grow them overlooking the ocean. At least that is what I want to believe.
Well keep on believing that because it’s not like I toured the whole area. I can imagine a real pumpkin patch next to the ocean too. How pretty.
Alas, this is not just a west coast phenomenon. This is how they “do” pumpkin picking on Long Island!
I can’t remember what it was like in Michigan. Do you?
I don’t remember going pumpkin picking in Michigan. In an agricultural state like Michigan, I don’t think there was much novelty to the idea of “picking” one. We just bought them at the farm stand or grocery store!
Good point. And there sure weren’t pumpkin patches in Detroit back then, but there are TONS of them now.