Plenty of pumpkins tho'.
A little background:
The Arata Pumpkin Farm is the oldest working pumpkin farm in San Mateo County, California. Pumpkins have been a way of life at the Arata Farm since 1932...How much water is in 3,000 tons of pumpkin?
About 3,000 tons of pumpkins are grown each year by 15 or so commercial growers in the Half Moon Bay area who ship them throughout the US. The Arata Farm distributes pumpkins to Rite Aid Stores nationwide.
In addition to the pumpkins, Arata has a 2-2.5 acre straw bale labyrinth that changes every year. That's one of its outer walls.
Admission to the labyrinth is $7, but you can enter it as many times as you want. I believe it's also open most of the year. And you can do it at night with flashlights. The walls are about 7' high but I managed to take this picture from inside with the Hipstamatic app on my iPhone, holding it over my 6'2"-tall head.
Inside the labyrinth you'll find a minotaur dispensing small, golden pumpkins. Which I think is pretty darn cool. There are also tractor rides, a petting zoo, a haunted barn...and gladiator fights.
And corn, which was much taller last year.
Alas, we did not stay for the gladiator fights.
Half Moon Bay is a troubled town. I'm not sure how it all went down but city leaders deliberately, and very foolishly, flooded a large piece of land to create wetland for birds. Unfortunately, the land was owned by a developer who sued in federal court and won a judgment for $38.6M. As the town's annual budget is only $10M, I believe they get to vote this November on whether to raise taxes to settle the judgment, or declare bankruptcy and disincorporate. The federal judge in that case, by the way, is the same federal judge who recently found California's anti-same-sex marriage Proposition 8 unconstitutional. He recently announced his retirement.
We stopped in town to visit the little garden furnishing store, Half to Have It. Quelle surprise--I took pictures.
These glass faces are cool.
We bought one of these fake floats last time.
Maybe we'll have one of these in the next garden:
Michelle at From Seed to Table makes pizza in hers--among other things, I'm sure.
The grounds are mulched with tumbled glass.
Mammies for Christopher C.! I think he once said he has a collection of these things. I think I said I did not approve... Ha, ha! Well, you don't see these for sale in California very often.
I like the hands, but the rest of my group said, "Um, no."
We all agreed on the passionflower tho'.
"It's a flower in a flower," said Jason.
