Pumpkin patches around the town
We are officially in the trickster time of year. This weekend, the Current caught up with a couple of the town’s first pumpkin festivities to talk Halloween.
At the 4-H club’s annual pumpkin sale, kids decorated more than 100 pumpkins, drawing bloody faces, Labubus, spiderman, inside jokes, and good old paint splatter.
“I’m painting a scary one,” said Aaliyah Lesky, 4, contorting her face into a snarl to match. Her mom, Jessica Lyons, sat across the table, chatting with fellow parents. One of them was Keznie Ramirez, whose twin daughters, Kaia and Kayden, go to Napa Junction Magnet Elementary School with Aaliyah and her sister Lissette.
“We just found out our daughters are best friends,” Ramirez said. The friendship brought the moms together for a day of pumpkin painting. Their daughters and a crew of friends ran around, counting pumpkins. The total came out to 150, lined up along the trail in Wetland’s Edge Park.
Most of the kids have their Halloween costumes planned — a baby wizard, a butterfly, Terrifier the killer clown.
The 4-H club’s pumpkin sale and painting is a free event for the community, though a pumpkin could run you up to $10, with all proceeds going to the 4-H. Each year, the event draws plenty of American Canyon locals, many with kids at Napa Junction or Donaldson Way Elementary School.
People who want a more carnivalesque time can check out the inflatable slides, bounce house, paintball, games and a vast pumpkin selection at ABC’s Pick of the Patch fair on Highway 29. While the 4-H events are free, Pick of the Patch is a spendy day out, with prices ranging from $10-$35 a head.
Some feel it’s worth it. “Kids are antsy,” said Pam, an area resident. “They don’t sit still.” Her grandson, Philip, 2, sat calmly on her knee. “He acts like he’s 3,” Pam told the Current. “He already knows his ABCs.
“Here, everything’s safe, clean, and there’s no smoking or drinking. It’s a good event,” she said.
Maybe because of those qualities and its proximity to the 29, Pick of the Patch draws people from all over. The Current met families from Vallejo to San Jose.
Today, Sunday, Oct. 5, the 4-H pumpkin sale returns from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. ABC’s Pick of the Patch is open weekdays from 2-9 p.m. and weekends 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. The pumpkins turn into Christmas trees in November.
