The Essential Details

  • Where: WSU Eggert Family Organic Farm
  • When: September 28 (10 am to 4 pm) - U-Pick and Harvest Festival; October 5 (10 am to 4 pm) - U-Pick Only
  • Cost: Festival is free. Pumpkins are pre-priced at farm.

Fall means pumpkins, cider, and festivals.

Halloween and other fall festivities are right around the corner. I know, time comes at you fast - one moment your sending kids off to their first day of the school year, the next you're picking out costumes and planning a Thanksgiving meal and buying Christmas presents . . .

Alright, alright, one thing at a time.

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WSU Organic Farm hosting annual Harvest Festival and U-Pick

Washington State University's Eggert Family Organic Farm, located east of the WSU Pullman Campus, is once again offering its ghoulish gourds for U-Pick prices. All pumpkins are pre-priced, and other organic fall veggies, including  carrots, winter squash, beets, potatoes, shallots, greens, and ornamental corn, will be available for sale. The farm is certified organic by the Washington State Department of Agriculture.

U-Pick will be available on September 28 and October 5 from 10 am to 4 pm. Card payments are preferred.

On September 28, the farm will also be hosting a one-day Harvest Festival. The free event will include face painting, games, and various fun farm activities. Pumpkin pie, donuts, and apple cider, made in partnership with WSU Residential Dining, will be available for purchase. Proceeds go toward WSU’s Organic Agriculture Club. Cash, check, and Venmo will be accepted for food purchases.

No pets are allowed on the farm for food safety.

When you should pick or buy your pumpkins?

Pumpkins, once picked, will generally last two to three months in cool, dry conditions (don't leave one by a floor heater like I did one year!). Picking pumpkins, whether for baking or carving, can easily be done a month before Halloween and two months before Thanksgiving. However, some carving experts recommend buying your pumpkin within the week you are going to carve and display it.

As explained on Real Simple's guide to carved pumpkins:

  • A good carving pumpkin is heavy, large, and unblemished
  • Look for a 3-5 inch long "fresh, green stem"
  • A pumpkin is ripe when the skin is hardened (try a fingernail test)
  • Avoid soft spots, cracks, and large blemishes
  • Check the bottom of the pumpkin

If you're buying a pumpkin for baking or pies, many of these same rules apply. However, there are many kinds of pumpkin - you should look for sugar or pie pumpkins if you want to bake them. Not sure what you're looking at? Ask a helper at the farm!

Remember to safely dispose your pumpkins.

Whether you carve or bake with them, you might have leftover pumpkin after the holidays. However, NPR recommends that you avoid dropping it in the dumpster, as they can create methane gas in a landfill. Instead, you can compost them, or look for livestock or wildlife to feed. Check with your local farms, ranches, shelters, etc. and see if they'll accept a pumpkin donation!

Support a cause and paint your pumpkins

Pumpkins have become more than a Halloween decoration for families who want to spread awareness about a specific cause. Here is a look at the meaning behind seven different pumpkin colors.

Gallery Credit: Rob Carroll

LOOK: How Halloween has changed in the past 100 years

Stacker compiled a list of ways that Halloween has changed over the last 100 years, from how we celebrate it on the day to the costumes we wear trick-or-treating. We’ve included events, inventions, and trends that changed the ways that Halloween was celebrated over time. Many of these traditions were phased out over time. But just like fake blood in a carpet, every bit of Halloween’s history left an impression we can see traces of today.

Gallery Credit: Brit McGinnis

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