Yes, I realize that the new year is just around the corner, but we are still waaaaay behind on updating about all of the Achievements we achieved this year! Long story short: I think we’ll be using the first week of January to attempt to continue to catch up on 2014 posts before diving headfirst into the 2015 list (but don’t worry, we won’t *really* be cheating: anything not completed at midnight on 1/1/15 will be scrapped for 2014 and carried over to the new year).
In any case, what I’m getting at here is that although it’s nearly January, I’m writing a post tonight about an adventure we took in October: our trip to Triple B Farms* for their Fall Festival.
Since we’re North Hills kids, we’d never been to Triple B Farms before. It is in the Elizabeth area, which is a bit of a haul from our usual spots. But the route to the farm is marked with signs – and not just any signs, signs that show you what’s in season!
Prepare yourself ahead of time: it will be PACKED when you go. Even on Steeler Sundays, the farm will be full (they do have a radio broadcasting the game for you though, so no worries there). You pass through this gate and purchase your tickets, which get you a wristband that gets you into all the fun stuff.
First up is the incredible Storybook Pumpkinland. A creative team of really dedicated people have put together an entire collection of pumpkin people from nursery rhymes, Disney movies, fairy tales, and even Bible stories. If you do nothing else besides pick out your pumpkin at Triple B Farms, make sure to check out Pumpkinland and try to guess what each display is.
Here are a few of our favorites:
The Little Mermaid.
Lumiere from Beauty and the Beast (yes, I know he isn’t made out of a pumpkin, but I’ve had a crush on him since the early 90s, so I was really thrilled to see him included in the display).
Little Miss Muffet and her adorably smiley spider.
Winnie the Pooh!!
Noah’s Ark (this one must have taken so much time – look at all the pairs of animals).
Further up the hill were farm animals we could visit. They let us pat this small duckling.
We also saw this cute and sleepy little cow.
AND there’s a whole section on bees!!! And there’s also this bee, who talks to you when you press a button. It’s a little creepy, but whatever, bees. I love bees.
In the front section of the farm there are these terrific slides, named after our famous Pittsburgh tunnels. Michael said I wasn’t allowed to go on them because ‘I’m a grown up’, but I reeeeeeally wanted to try.
After visiting the farm’s attractions, we boarded the hayride to go to the pumpkin patch!
If you thought the characters were only in Pumpkinland, you’d be wrong: they are all along the ride to the pumpkin patch as well. Another cute spider!
Even with how crowded Triple B Farms was when we were there, there were still a ton of pumpkins to choose from.
We chose pretty much the heaviest one we could find.
More than 30 pounds!! I think that might be a new record!
You pay for your pumpkin before getting back onto the hayride, and then once the tractor pulls into the main farm area, you are free to go! However, this is also where the market is, so put your pumpkin in the car and come back to do some browsing.
They carry a great variety of jellies, dips, salsas, BBQ sauces, and rubs.
We used our gift card on a pumpkin muffin and root beer (not pictured here, because I was starving), this stuffed bear in a bee costume, a flavored balsamic vinegar, and a maple pepper garlic rub. I could have spent a lot more than $20 here easily! So many good options to buy fresh & buy local.
And then we went home and carved our pumpkin to look like Pinhead, put Lucy in her Lobster costume, and took their picture together.
Final verdict? Triple B Farms is super cute. It’s a little off the beaten path for those of us who live in the city or north, but we had a great time. Plan to make a few-hours trip out of it so you can see everything they have. You can also grab lunch there (they had awesome sauerkraut dogs!) or just stock up on goodies from the market. Either way, it’ll be a pumpkin patch adventure to remember! (And you can check them out earlier in the season for their strawberries and other fresh produce.)
*Full disclosure: earlier in 2014, Triple B Farms approached us and a handful of other bloggers, inviting us to check out their farm. They *did* give us a $20 gift card to use in their farm market, but there was no stipulation that we had to write a post about the adventure. We had such a great time, we wanted to tell our readers about it!
That looks like so much fun! Reminds me of our Janoski Pumpkin Patch days!