Halloween may not be my favorite holiday, but there are numerous things I love about it. One of my favorite activities to do is carve pumpkins. I’ve been carving pumpkins every Halloween for as long as I can remember and after 20 or so years of practice, I’m still awful at it. Almost every year I’ve picked out my pumpkin from the big cardboard box full of them in front of a grocery store. This year I did something different and way more fun.

My friend who was visiting from New York wanted to go get pumpkins from Gilcrease Orchard. She, our other friend, and I spent last Tuesday morning at the orchard. So this orchard is in North Las Vegas where the neighborhood lots are much bigger and it has a variety of different fruits and veggies to pick. From apples to corn to sweet potatoes and other items, you can buy whatever you pick. The orchard is most popular for its massive pumpkin patch during October. It’s open to the public on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday from 7 am to 2 pm. They do field trips almost every day though so be prepared to be around a lot of children. It’s free to get in and walk around and check everything out.

I’d recommend going early in the morning since it gets busy fast. Our first stop at the orchard was to taste their homemade donuts. They also put homemade frosting on these things and, oh my gosh, they are sooo good. I could have had a whole plate of them but I thankfully I had some self-control that day. If you go to the orchard the donuts are a must have!

Next, we took a hayride around the orchard grounds. That was my first ever hayride so that was kind of cool. There was a small hay maze for youngsters along with a chicken coop and a protected beehive for people to check out.

Most of the corn and the apples for the season was gone by the time we walked over there. Thankfully there were still a lot of pumpkins left. We grabbed a wagon to wheel our pumpkins around in and started our hunt. They had big ones, small ones, white ones, green ones. I grabbed one for my fiance and me. I even had to rip one off the vine it was so fresh. Once we got all our pumpkins we paid 50 cents per pound for them. At the check out line, they also had fresh honey and peanut butter and other items they make right at their farm.

I’d recommend every local to check this place out. Not only is it a fun time picking pumpkins, but you’d be supporting a local farmer. Go earlier in the month rather than later for a better and bigger pick of the crop. Happy Halloween!