Pumpkin Picking & Harvest Fest

This past weekend, Jeff & I went pumpkin picking at Pine Tree Apple Orchard in White Bear Lake. Upon arriving, I was quite surprised at the amount of activities they had going on there. Everything from hayrides, to apple picking, pumpkin picking, corn mazes, photo ops, and a bakery/grocery shop (a la' Elegant Farmer) were available. Jeff and I started with the corn maze. The maze consisted of two separate sections separated by a road. Hidden within the maze were signs, each containing a letter. The goal was to find all seven letters and unscramble them to make a word. Jeff and I were successful in spelling out the word F-A-R-M-I-N-G. :o)



Next up was the pumpkin picking. Jeff & I were very careful in our selection, scouring three separate fields before we found the perfect ones. I am a huge fan of perfectly rounded pumpkins (they make the best toothy-grinned jack-o-lanterns!). For mine, I found the pumpkin still attached to the vine hidden beneath a ton of vegetation. Jeff's pumpkin needed to be a bit taller for the intricate faces he carves, so after searching for a few more minutes, we came across the perfect one for him. All in all, it was a very successful trip.



Before leaving Pine Tree, we took a quick walk through the apple orchards back to the shop. What Jeff thought was the smell of Minnesota's famous mini-doughnuts turned out to be home-made apple doughnuts that they were selling in the shop. We left with one package of doughnuts and a bag full of mini-pumpkins for our front porch.

Next up, we stopped at a fine German restaurant on our way to Stillwater for an Oktoberfest feast. All Jeff & I could say after lunch is we are glad we don't have to eat German food every day. Wow - is that stuff heavy! I enjoyed my knackwurst (tasted like kielbasa), but beets and cabbage on everything is a little much.

However, the food did prepare us for a fun afternoon in Stillwater at Harvest Fest. There, we were able to see a pumpkin growing contest where the winner grew a 1,544 lbs. pumpkin! We also enjoyed strolling along the St. Croix River and the streets of downtown Stillwater. All in all, it was a great autumn day!