With all things 2020, Halloween is no different. A Covid Halloween has thrown a few wrenches into our normal seasonal traditions.
We used to always go to Conte Farms in Tabernacle, NJ for all things picking, which was great. The kids always enjoyed getting blueberry ice cream at their shop after blueberry picking and apple cider donuts after pumpkin picking. Then they started charging for hay rides, which wasn’t great. Even then, it wasn’t too costly, but a couple years later they went out of business.
That forced us to find another farm to do all of our picking. We went to a couple places, but none of them compared. The closest to us was ridiculous with what they charged for the hay ride. Then we found Heritage Vineyards in Mullica Hill.
They only have apple and pumpkin picking, to my knowledge, but they do not charge for the hay ride, only the pumpkins. Plus, they have some pretty good wine.
Unfortunately, Covid Halloween stuck and they aren’t doing pumpkin picking this year. Christy was going to take the kids to a group picking another home school mom organized, but just for her and the kids it would have been $100 with the hay ride. That is highway robbery.
So, like we did with the Independence Day parade, we had to get a little creative. I picked up 7 pumpkins from Aldi for $20.93. I bought 7 so that our 5 kids could at least have the illusion that they were picking their own. I drove those to the field down the street, placed them, and Christy walked down with the kids to pick their pumpkins. It wasn’t the experience that any of us were used to or necessarily wanted, but we were able to somewhat keep our tradition and do it on the cheap.
I think they all did a great job on drawing their faces and the oldest 2 with their carving. Our middle child had the idea for the Covid pumpkin. It has most of the country scared when it’s not Halloween.
Now we will see how Covid will affect Trick or Treating. Christy is afraid no one will be passing out candy and the kids will be disappointed, but I’m hopeful that most that normally do, will just to have a feeling of normalcy in this shit storm of a year.