Pick Your Own Pumpkins

2021 PUMPKIN PICKING
UPDATE 31/10/21: WE HAVE NOW SOLD OUT OF PUMPKINS FOR 2021. Thanks to everyone who came down this year 🙂 See you next year!!!We are open from 10am today until 4pm or until we sell out of Pumpkins. We have 40 healthy Pumpkins left in the patch as of 10am. We will update our social media channels as and when we sell out. For those booked on the boat trips today, we guarantee you a Pumpkin. Happy Halloween 🙂
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Pumpkins will be available to pick from the farm on 23/24/29/30/31 October. There is no need to book to pick a Pumpkin. There will be no facilities or activities as per previous years (sorry), but we will have lots of Pumpkins spread around a beautiful part of our farm to pick from. There is no charge to come to the patch and Pumpkins are priced by size: £3 small / £5 medium / £7 large / £9 monster. We take card or cash for payment.

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2020 Pumpkin Picking

There will not be a Pick-Your-Own-Pumpkin event at Narrowboat Farm in 2020. We’re very sorry to disappoint many of you. We simply do not have the setup in place to put on a quality and responsible experience this year.

This has been a tough decision, we’ve seen our popular event grow over the past few years into something folk look forward to. We have Pumpkins, but our events are not about the Pumpkins, they’re about the fun times you can have at our farm and we cannot provide them this year.

A combination of logistical and staffing challenges in the Covid environment, including a broken canal, and other issues have meant we cannot put on many of the attractions which are core to the event. No boat trips, no carving workshops, no halloween cinema, no cafe in the barn.

So rather than put on something which is a step backwards we’ve decided to sit it out for this year and come back stronger. We hope this doesn’t come as too much of a disappointment.

We will have Pumpkins-only available and will update on that soon. Stay safe and have a stonking Halloween 🎃👻 🚜

Kind regards, Iain and the Narrowboat Farm team.

    2019 PUMPKIN PICKING…
    *** Stock update: WE HAVE SOLD OUT FOR 2019. Thanks to everyone who came down and made our Pumpkin patch a wee bit special 🙂 ***

It’s back! We’re open from 10am – 4pm each day. Building on the huge success of Halloween 2018, it’s back! Over 1000 Pumpkins to pick from, bigger and better this year with more Pumpkins, more fun, more boat trips, more spookiness!

When: the field will be open for picking from 10am until 4pm, on Sat 19th, Sun 20th, Sat 26th and Sun 27th October 2019. On WEEKDAYS from Monday 21st – Friday 25th and Monday 28th – Thursday 31st we will not be providing any entertainment or activities on site, but we will not turn away people who wish to pick a Pumpkin, unless we have sold out. Indeed this will suit anyone wanting a more peaceful experience. But the weekends will be a lot more fun!

How: Entry/parking is free and no need to book, unless you want to get tickets for a return Pumpkin cruise (now sold out) or to book a Pumpkin carving workshop (see below). When you arrive, you can follow the signs a very short distance in to the pumpkin patch, select your pumpkin(s) and pay as you leave the patch. We will have a few wheelbarrows available if you pick a monster, and a few sets of spare wellies although the pumpkins themselves are sat on weed matting so it shouldn’t be too swampy.

How Much: Pumpkins cost £3(small)/£5(medium)/£7(large)/£9(XL) with any ‘monsters’ priced by weight, payable to the friendly Narrowboat Farm staff. Pumpkins can be bought using cash or card (as long as our card reader isn’t feeling grumpy at being in a cold field). Boat trips, refreshments and facepainting can also be paid for by card or cash (cash preferred). The carving workshops are available at no extra charge for pumpkins purchased at Narrowboat Farm (places limited, booking details below via paypal).

Where: Narrowboat Farm is easy to find. It is 2 miles East of Linlithgow, a 30 minute walk/canoe or 10 minute cycle from Linlithgow train station along the canal. At the Park Bistro, you cross the canal bridge and take a sharp left along the B-road, past two small cottages and into the field with the polytunnel. EH49 6QY for your satnav (although that might take you to the Park Bistro). Find us on Google maps.

Parking: We have space for 30 cars to park on hard-standing. Due to the recent wet weather our grassy overflow car parking will only be suitable for very capable 4×4 vehicles. There is a car park 100m along the road by the canal bridge which can also be used for those who don’t mind a short walk along a country road to the patch. You can even drop off a family member and your wee ones at the patch and then park there if you are worried about kids walking along the road. Please avoid using the Park Bistro car park unless you intend to have lunch there. There will be a member of staff at the entrance to advise you of your best parking option. Remember, it’s only a 30 minute walk/canoe or 10 minute cycle from Linlithgow train station along the canal, a beautiful trip at that! We will have free gifts available for kids who travel to us using one of these ‘green’ options.

What About The Weather?: It’s Scotland, it’s Autumn, our patch will be open in all weathers apart from hurricanes! You park on hard-standing, the entrance to the patch is on hard-standing. The pop-up cafe, face-painting and entrance/exit are under cover and on hard-standing. The Pumpkins are on weed-matting so whilst it is a bit wet and gloopy, the matting keeps the mud underneath mostly. If you bring sensible clothing and wellies, you’ll be fine. We’d recommend boots or wellies and wind/waterproof clothing, but if you don’t have any, we do have wellies and ponchos to borrow for free.

What About Dogs?: You can bring your dog to the patch as long as you keep it on a short lead at all times and keep it under control in case anyone is scared of your dog. Please note we have livestock on our farm and unruly dogs will not be tolerated. But we love dogs and we’d love to meet your dog!

Boat Trips: There are two types of boat trips available during PYOP:

  1. Storytelling return cruises from Linlithgow by LUCS: NOW SOLD OUT
  2. Short cruises (approx 45 mins) from Narrowboat Farm – these cruises run by our friends from Bridge 19-40 Canal Society are a great wee taster of the canal around the farm. Available to book on the day (10:30, 11:30, 12:30, 1:30, 2:30 trips), the short cruise will make its way into the local countryside before returning to Narrowboat Farm. Tickets can be purchased in the cafe area from the Bridge 19-40 staff: £5 per adult | £3 per child. During busy times, it may be necessary to book a ticket for a slightly later cruise.

Pop-up Cafe: The awesome Granary Cafe Linlithgow will be bringing their pop-up cafe to Narrowboat Farm for PYOP. They will be serving speciality coffee, tea and hot chocolate and homemade pumpkin brownies. They will also have homemade soup which will be gluten free and vegan (standard for the Granary) served with sourdough bread. Yum!

Face-painting: Get your wee ones into the Halloween spirit with ‘Face Painting by Catrina’. With loads of experience, great reviews and a portfolio to make to you go ‘WOW’, they will be on site from 11am each day – £3/child.

‘Free’ Pumpkin Carving Workshops: If you book one of our workshops here, you simply buy a voucher for a medium-sized Pumpkin and then the workshop itself is available at no extra cost. If you wish to pick a larger pumpkin you may, simply pay the extra before you begin the workshop. It is not advised to pick a pumpkin much smaller or larger than a medium for the carving workshop. Please ensure you arrive at least 20 minutes prior to your workshop to give you time to pick your Pumpkin and register for the workshop. We’ve had to go with this system this year because last year the workshops were over-subscribed yet some people didn’t turn up despite booking their free slot. The voucher is PER PUMPKIN, NOT PER PERSON. That means you can have a parent and child, or two adults, working on one pumpkin. More than two people around each Pumpkin is not recommended. If you wish to carve more pumpkins, you will need to buy more vouchers in advance, it may not be possible to add more on the day due to space and tools being limited.

The bookings below are through paypal, you do not need a paypal account to pay securely using paypal, you may use a debit or credit card, simply checkout as a ‘guest’. If you checkout as a ‘guest’ (for those without paypal accounts), you should supply a working email address at the checkout stage. Once your booking is processed, you should firstly receive an email receipt from paypal. Then you will receive an email within 48hrs from us to confirm your details. Please be patient for this email, but if you have any queries simply email us on info@narrowboatfarm.com and we’ll check things for you.

Saturday 19th October – 11am: FULL | 1pm: FULL | 3pm: FULL
Sunday 20th October – 11am: FULL | 1pm: FULL | 3pm: FULL
Saturday 26th October – 11am: FULL | 1pm: FULL | 3pm: FULL
Sunday 27th October – 11am: FULL | 1pm: FULL | 3pm: FULL

If you have booked a ticket for a return cruise from Linlithgow, your carving workshop is already included and arranged, no need to book a workshop slot.

And of course you can’t leave without proudly displaying your pumpkins and getting snapped as a ghost, pumpkin, monster or bat!

Stay tuned for more updates here and on our social media feeds…

September 2019: A huge variety of pumpkins this year (top left to bottom right): Atlantic Giants, Hooligans, Knuckleheads and Caspars

August 2019: A pumpkin patch full of vines

July 2019: Bees pollinating/Vines spreading/First Pumpkins forming after a slow start

May 2019: 450 Pumpkin plants planted out

2018 PUMPKIN PICKING…
Here are some highlights from 2018 Pumpkin picking at Narrowboat Farm 🙂

Come and enjoy some family fun this Halloween at Narrowboat Farm and pick your own pumpkins. Grown right here on site, we have 1000 Jack O’Lanterns waiting to be carved by you!

Our Pumpkins
Here you can follow the story of our pumpkins from seed to carving:

early May 2018: 300 organic ‘Jack O’Lantern’ seeds sown:

late May 2018: 285 surviving seedlings planted out in the field:

June 2018: first blossoms and teeny fruits:

early July 2018: vines spreading and fruits growing during the hot spell:

late July 2018: pumpkins approaching football size already and vines have covered the whole patch…

early August 2018: growinng bigger and bigger, and some have even started to ripen!

late August 2018: doing some test carving on ripened pumpkins

early September 2018: the plants are dying back naturally to reveal ripe pumpkins

late September 2018: the pumpkins have been snipped off the dead plants and sat upright to ripen in the sunshine

early October 2018: treating the pumpkins to dry bottoms as the weather turns Autumnal, 200 in the polytunnel too to make sure there are healthy pumpkins for the last few days of picking…

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