Swiss Pumpkin Farms





Last week I was supposed to have lunch with a friend in the city, and I canceled my personal training session for that reason. My friend's boss ended up throwing a farewell lunch for her, but since I already got all that free time on my hands plus the weather fas fantastic I took the opportunity to drive the 75 minutes to one of the happiest places in Switzerland: Jucker's Farm. They always do a wonderful job for pumpkin season, and I couldn't wait to find out what this year's theme was going to be. One year there were fairytales and legendary creatures and one year they displayed Ancient Rome. 

I was welcomed by wooden containers full of colorful pumpkin, and it didn't take long and I met...



Mrs Squirrel! Oh my goodness, how cute! So well done!



Mr Owl is keeping tabs on us visitors, and he's making sure we're on our best behavior!



This old tractor's purpose is to look pretty and serve as a toy and jungle gym for the kids.



No backyard without a couple of trolls - and hedgehogs. 



Did I hear a bugle sound coming from the bluffs? That's right, Mr Elk is calling.



I had no idea there is such a thing as a fall bunny, but here we go!



The Greifensee is only 4 miles long and 1 mile wide, so a lot of people who visit the pumpkin farm actually hike all the way around the lake.



Me? I wanted to check out the food...




Welcome!



I was there early, so everything was looking nice and neat.



I love those rustic wooden wagons! Perfect for this place!



Pumpkin bars, anyone?



Fresh produce from the farm or its "sibling companies", I'll talk about it in a minute.



Demand can not be met in terms of the veggies, and especially the pumpkin they grow themselves, so they cooperate with other farms, and one of them is also doing the fall festival activities like corn maze, pumpkin carving, etc. as well. 

It's another half hour's drive, but since I was already close... 

It was almost warm enough to drive with the top down. That's where a car's heating comes in, right?

This farm is called Bächlihof and it's located at the head of Lake Zurich. They have a huge blueberry field for you to pick your own.



Everything looks so pretty, especially on a gorgeous, blue sky kind of day like today!



Signs were telling people about the hailstorms that unfortunately damaged most of the pumpkins. They decided to take it with a great deal of humor, call it "hail pumpkin", slap a hashtag on it and make it a challenge. Take a picture of what you cooked, baked or otherwise created with a hail pumpkin and post it. Ha, I will so do this!



First let's see what they have come up with to complete Juckerhof's forest friends theme. How cute is Mr Fox here?



Some little children referred to those woodpeckers as penguins, and who could blame them?



It took me a couple of seconds to recognize those wild boars.



Even without pumpkin - this patio lounge looks mighty welcoming to me! With wifi (and minus the shrieking kids and buzzing wasps) it'd be the perfect writing spot.



Homemade apple juice. Grab a plastic bottle - or bring your own - and fill it!



For your convenience there are ready to grab bottles available.



Speaking of convenience. They prepared those cute cardboard containers with the ingredients you need to make pumpkin soup: Pumpkin, carrots, potatoes, an onion, garlic, root celery - even a little jar filled with roasted pumpkin seeds. Is that cute or what? I wasn't planning on cooking that night, but hey...




So at home I did some serious washing, peeling, chopping, steaming and pureeing...



Dinner is served!


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