Picture Perfect Weather For Pumpkin Patches
WYOMING, Minn. (WCCO) -- It was another beautiful fall day but Minnesotans know they can't last forever. With Halloween just a week away, kids are getting excited for their big night and preparing with some pumpkin shopping.
At Pinehaven Farm in Wyoming, about 45 minutes north of the Twin Cities, there aren't as many pumpkins as past years but the weather has made it a perfect pumpkin patch experience for the kids.
For 15 years, the Hastings family has invited kids -- and their adults -- to take a wagon ride to the 20-acre pumpkin patch. Some kids come from school for a field trip -- that is actually a field trip.
"They have this almost an inner need to have a connection to a farm and to the earth. And we're so happy to be able to provide that," said Sue Hastings of Pinehaven Farm.
She said it's good for kids to see that pumpkins and other produce don't just come from a grocery store.
Smaller farm animals are always a hit with kids, and this place has goats, chickens, some little horses and a mama and baby yak.
But what trip to the pumpkin patch would be complete without a pumpkin cannon? This baby gets a coating of soapy water then uses compressed air to shoot a pumpkin more than a quarter mile.
"My brother and my dad built it. It was one of those things, they saw some inspiration on the Discovery Channel and they said 'We can do that,'" said J.J. Hastings of Pinehave Farm. "So they went to work in the welding shop, and the next thing you know we've got a pumpkin launcher."
While the weather has been good for business, the folks at Pinehaven farm say they're ready for some rain.