This fall, the minis and I embarked on a new Tour. A Tour of Pumpkin Patches to be exact. We've made our way to 8 patches in Central Iowa. Along the way we spent a lot of time wandering through corn mazes, "swimming" in corn pools, and seem to have gathered enough pumpkins to form our own pumpkin patch.
Each weekend we attempted to go to anywhere from 1 - 3 patches. We had our sights set on more patches, but quite honestly we lost steam by the fourth weekend. Here's the list of all of the patches we've visited (so far, we may be ambitious an add to this list until the end of the month!) complete with their addresses, prices, ratings (according to our experience), and our favorite patches..
Geisler Farms ★★★★★
- 5251 NE 94th Avenue Bondurant, Iowa 50035
- Open Friday 5 p.m. -8 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. - 8 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. - 8 p.m.
- $8 for maze & hayride, $5 for fun zone and hayride, kids 2 years and younger are free, the pumpkin patch is free
Iowa Orchard ★★★☆☆
- 9875 Meredith Drive Urbandale, Iowa 50322
- Open 7 days a week, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
- Fun Zone: $4 per person, Shop area and pumpkin patch free
Wills Family Orchard ★★★★☆
- 33130 Panther Creek Rd. Adel, Iowa 50003
- Open Saturday 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. and Sunday 12 p.m. - 5 p.m.
- Corn Maze: $3 per person (2 and under are free), Wagon Rides (only available certain weekends) $3 per person (2 and under are free)
Center Grove Orchard ★★★★☆
- 32835 610th Avenue Cambridge, Iowa 50046
- Open 7 days a week 9 a.m. - 7 p.m.
- Weekdays $8.95 per person, Weekends $10.95 per person, $3 for a train ride on the new CGO Express-ages 3 and older)
Howell's ★★★★★
- 3145 Howell Ct. Cumming, Iowa 50061
- Open 7 days a week 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
- $9.00 per person (activities such as the corn shoot and pony rides are extra)
Pumpkinville ★★★☆☆
- 618 Center Ave S, Mitchellville, Iowa 50169
- Open 7 days a week 10 a.m. - 8 p.m.
- Mazes $1 per person, all other activities free
The Pumpkin Ranch ★★☆☆☆
- 2425 Hiatt Apple Rd., Winterset, Iowa 50273
- Friday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. - 7 p.m., Sunday 12 p.m. - 5 p.m.
- $8.50 per person, $6.50 on Discount Friday's
Frey Farms ★★★★★
- 1 1/2 miles south of Madrid on Hwy 17
- Monday - Friday 3:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m., Saturday & Sunday 9 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
- Free (there are no extra activities or games, but they have the best pumpkin patch in Central Iowa in my opinion)
How they rated according to our family of five:
- My favorite: "Tie between Geisler Farms and Frey's. Both have a small town sense to them (because they are in small towns) and have decent prices on their products. Howell's my next favorite. They had a lot of great pumpkins in their patch."
- Hubs favorite: "Howell's because it's a classic. Geisler comes in second."
- Max's favorite: "The Pumpkin Ranch because of the zip line and Howell's because they had the best pumpkin patch."
- Harrison's favorite: "All of them....and the big fast slides at Geisler Farms. That was better than the park!"
- Elizabeth's favorite: "I like the ones with Apple Cider donuts" (that would be Wills and Center Grover Orchard)
Want to do your own Tour of Pumpkin Patch's? Here's a list of must haves while spending the day at pumpkin patches:
- Baby wipes
- Cooler (stocked with water bottles and healthy snacks to keep hydrated)
- Extra socks (a lot of patches we've been to have activities that require no shoes on, which means socks are getting disgustingly dirty and unwearable)
- Mittens/hats/gloves/weather appropriate clothes
- Snack containers filled with your child's favorite snacks
- A change or two of clothes for everyone (I'm looking at you parents. You may remember to bring along extra clothes for the kiddos, but after a day in several corn pools, you may want/require a change of clothes too).
- At least $20 in cash (most patches accept debit/credit cards as well, but it's always good to carry cash just in case there's pony rides....or goat feeding...or corn shooting....or apple sling shot)