Autumn doesn’t feel like autumn without pumpkins, and what can be more exciting than going to a pumpkin patch to pick your perfect one? So last weekend, my friend and I jumped on a train to Surrey to visit a famous pumpkin patch at the Crockford Bridge Farm. We took an early train from Waterloo station to West Byfleet, which is just 2.5 miles away from the farm and the whole journey took us about 30 minutes.
On our way to the farm, we stopped for lunch in West Byfleet at the lovely Italian restaurant called Lello’s (18 Station Approach, West Byfleet, KT14 6NF). You can’t miss it as it’s just next to the station.
What I love about this place is that it offers authentic Italian cuisine. All the food is made using regional artisan techniques and fresh, organic ingredients. Needless to say, our pizzas and wine were delicious and gave us the right boost of energy for the whole day ahead.
After lunch, we took a taxi from the Network Cars service just next to the station (20 Station Approach, West Byfleet KT14 6NF) to the Crockford Bridge Farm (New Haw Road Addlestone, Weybridge KT15 2BU).
The farm exceeded our expectations. The Crockford’s Corner, which is just at the end of the main driveway, was beautifully decorated and helped us get into the autumnal spirit with pumpkins, Halloween and hippie installations.
You can relax there getting an Italian gelato at the Ice-cream parlour, hot chocolate or toffee apples at the Tea Shack Tuck Shop or just taking some photos in front of arty pumpkin installations! We couldn’t help taking pictures despite the heavy rain. But hey, how many times in the year are you at the Pumpkin patch?!
We were amazed to see so many pumpkins of different colours, from tiny munchkins to massive ‘Atlantic Giants’. We couldn’t carry too many with us to London, so we decided to pick just a couple as a decoration and maybe just one pumpkin to eat in a cake or a pumpkin soup.
We also chose some most photogenic pumpkins to photograph against the background of some colourful barrels and installations. We had plenty of time for this, hiding from the heavy rain under one of the sheds. You can’t see it so much in the photos but believe me – it was raining all day round!
After a full day at the farm, we went straight to the Weybridge Garden Centre located just 5 min away from the pumpkin patch to warm ourselves up with a good cup of tea and buy some Halloween treats.
It’s quite a big store where you can get things like gardening products, garden furniture, houseplants, books and… umbrellas!
We couldn’t feel more ready now for Halloween to come!
