Finding the perfect pumpkin

Cool, crisp weather has finally come to Southern Arizona, along with twinkling orange lights, fake spider webs, and bags of candy piled high at the local Walgreens.

But there’s no better way to get into the Halloween spirit than a trip to the local pumpkin patch.

On Monday, the three first-grade classes from Continental School in Green Valley took a field trip to Amado’s Agua Linda Farm, where they had fun exploring the petting zoo, scrambling through a maze made from hay bales and — most importantly — searching for the perfect pumpkin.

Before the day ended with a picnic, the kids got a lesson from Laurel Loew — who owns and runs Agua Linda Farm along with her husband, Stewart — on how farm-grown products are used in their daily lives.

Agua Linda Farm is closed during the week while the Loews host field trips like this one, but is open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays throughout October for their Fall Festival, a favorite local tradition this time of year.

The festival offers pumpkin-picking, live music, farm-fresh hamburgers, pie-eating-contests and hay rides around the pumpkin patch. Pony rides are $5 and pumpkins are 50 cents per pound.

While there, you can shop in the farm store for fresh vegetables and other products, such as local honey, organic jams, Sunflowers and decorative dried gourds. The store is open year-round on weekends.

The Fall Festival runs Saturdays and Sundays, October 18, 19, 25 and 26, from 10 am to 5 p.m., and Friday evenings, Oct. 17 and 24, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. On Fridays, the festival features a screening of the movie “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.” The farm will not be open to the public on Halloween.

Admission is $7 per car.

Directions: Take the Interstate 19 south to the Agua Linda Road Exit. From there, go south on the east frontage road, which turns into the driveway of the farm.

For more information, contact Agua Linda Farm at (520)-398-3218 or visit http://www.agualindafarm.net.

jrichardson@gvnews.com | 547-9726