Pumpkin Picking at Yorkshire Pumpkins

More than 70 varieties of pumpkin and squash grow in the fields at Lodge Farm, and you cut yours straight from the plant rather than lifting one off a display. Wheelbarrows are provided to trundle your haul around the patch, and there is a wash station so the pumpkins go home clean rather than caked in mud.

This is a working family farm and the picking is the main event, but there is enough around it to fill a morning. Games include pumpkin bowling and giant noughts and crosses, children can ride toy tractors and climb the bale mountain, and the photo backdrops run to a pumpkin door, a vintage tractor and a bale sofa.

Food is handled by Stable Pizza Co, who serve pizza on site, and by the pumpkin cafe with hot drinks, soup, homemade cakes and bat buns. Between the two you can make a proper stop of it rather than picking and running.

Tickets have to be booked in advance, which the farm explains is how it manages the car park and the wheelbarrows. Everyone needs a ticket except babes in arms, and the pumpkins themselves are paid for separately, priced by size. Dogs are not allowed for health and safety reasons. Wellies are recommended for all the family; the paths are wide enough for a buggy, and there are toilets and baby change on site.