Tag: Essex

We returned to Marsh Farm, where we had previously gone to pick pumpkins, for their annual Halloween Festival – an impressive event which has a lot more going on than any of us expected.

Even though the days seem to be getting shorter, and the temperature keeps dropping, it’s more important than ever to make sure that you get out of the house when you can. We’d already travelled to pick pumpkins at Marsh Farm’s impressive Pumpkin Village earlier in the month, and while there we noticed that there was actually much more to the place than a village shop and extremely well laid-out and decorated pumpkin patch. We spotted an entryway reminiscent of theme park booths, and what looked like a carousel. We had to go back and see the whole thing – so we set a day aside and headed there on a quiet Sunday.

Continue reading “A Day Out at Marsh Farm Halloween Festival” →

In the continued spirit of October, we made our way to Hatter’s Farm, an activity-clad farm which we’d occasionally spotted signs for while heading to the next city over. It had been the Corn (Maize) Maze that had originally caught our eyes – as there aren’t too many of them around this way, but it turned out that they actually had a couple of things going on beyond the opportunity to get lost in a field.

Corn Maze

I’d never actually been to a Corn Maze before, and neither had the kids (although, Jupiter, being from the United States, had been in dozens), so it was a really cool experience to finally manage to get along to one. It sounds really silly, but it’s very bizarre being dwarfed by corn, although the farm staff had done a great job of cutting wide paths through the field. Rather than just being a maze cut from crops there were also nine signposts which, together, served as an anagram for a mystery word. It gave an extra reason to explore all of the dead ends, which was welcome. The place was a bit muddy, with small feet getting stuck here and there!

Continue reading “A Day Out at Hatter’s Farm” →

Looking for a pumpkin patch to find your Halloween Pumpkin is no small task. There are normally many, many pumpkin places around, but we wanted to explore something new! Jupiter found Marsh Farm’s Pumpkin Picking Village (and Halloween Festival) and was quite excited about it. It’s not too far from us by car, so we figured we’d all go after school and grab some pumpkins to carve up for our doorstep.

Arriving at the Pumpkin Picking Village, we were all impressed with the spooky barn that you have to enter through. Once in, you can put down a £5, refundable, deposit on a green wagon to take into the pumpkin area. We did get one of these as each of us were set on getting a decent sized pumpkin, as well as some smaller pumpkins, to decorate the house. Marsh Farm has set up their pumpkin village to be a great place to take photographs, as well as find the perfect pumpkin. There are a bunch of different types from nobbly ones to classic orange pumpkins, to white ghosts or spliced pumpkins (that had a few different squashes growing inside of other ones).

Continue reading “A Day Out at Marsh Farm’s Pumpkin Picking Village” →