We went on a Pumpkin holiday

Guten Morgen guten Morgen!

I can’t believe it has been 10 days already and I still haven’t told you about our wonderful trip to the Jucker Farmart two weekends ago! Our friendly neighbours invited us along to their annual outing to this pumpkin farm near Pfäfiffkersee. They were full of praise about their visits in the previous years but we still a bit unsure about what it was all about (I mean pumpkin obviously but how they made it exciting enough to have hundreds of people come back every single year…)

We knew when we saw these wheelbarrows at the entrance to the event that there was going to be some serious pumpkin shopping action that day!

As we turned the corner into the farm yard, we became overwhelmed with colours, smells and shapes! The theme this year was “Switzerland” and we were surrounded by pumpkin sculptures of Swiss images…

Did you recognize William Tell? Heidi’s house?and an alphorn player? The sculpture of the 3 hands in the middle may not ring a bell for non-Swiss residents. It symbolizes the Rütlischwur that we celebrated on the 1st of August this year (you can read about it here). The Rütlischwur is a legendary oath of the Old Swiss Confederacy, taken on the Rütli, a meadow above Lake Lucerne near Seelisberg.

How about more Swiss stereotypes?

Everyone loves a Swiss army knife, a marmot or a Bernhardiner!

What really amazed us was the diversity of pumpkins from all over the world. I would never have thought that pumpkins (and its relatives) came in so many sizes, colours, shapes, textures!

I was also really shocked at how big they can grow! This one below was only the second largest pumpkin that had been grown on the farm this year and weighed in at 377kg. The heaviest one was on a European tour and would have made this one looks tiny weighing in at over 700kg!

As always in Switzerland for these kinds of events, tables and benches had been laid and delicious food was waiting for us. What a tasty lunch we had, starting with pumpkin soup (in which we added pumpkin oil and pumpkin seeds…yum!)…

… followed by pumpkin sausage and pumpkin beer for some…

…ending with pumpkin brownies (these were so good they did not last long enough for a picture to be taken!)

The farm offered breathtaking views over the Austrian Alps.

Lunch was followed by a nice walk along Pfäfiffkersee during which many walnuts were collected. I would certainly recommend this annual event to anyone leaving near Zürich and we’re already looking forward to going back (and buying more pumpkin oil) next year! I will leave you with a photo which I think summarises the essence of the farm pretty well.

Do you have similar autumn/food festivals near where you live?