Hello everyone, and welcome back to another blog post! This post is a personal one all about mine and Sam's visit to the Spadework Charity Garden Centre - which has a PYO Pumpkin Patch that raises money for the charity. I won't lie, we did have to go once I had finished work at 2:45pm but we got there in good timing; believe we were there and parked by 3:20pm. We went on the 20th October 2022.
Once we arrived and parked up, we were greeted by a kind young lady who told us how it worked at their pumpkin picking patch - we didn't have to pay to get in and the pumpkins where priced according to size and could be measured up once we had picked them and were ready to pay.
Then, we were assigned a wheelbarrow and allowed to wonder their pumpkin patch to find ones that would be ideal for us. Walking through the patch was so much fun and there were soooo many pumpkins, of all different shapes, sizes and colours! We picked up 7 tiny little pumpkins that we could use as table decoration for our Halloween Party, 3 normal/big sized pumpkins for us to carve and of course Sam had to pick a weird, octopus shaped white one.
Once we were done choosing our pumpkins, we decided to visit their Food Shed which was like a cafe. It was super adorable inside and felt very homely; and to top it off, the food was amazing too. We ordered a hot chocolate each - Sam obviously had to get his with marshmallows on top - some loaded cheese and bacon fries and Sam ordered himself a cheese and bean Jacket potato & I ordered a slice of a Diam brownie. When I say this hot chocolate was amazing, I mean it - from the fresh whipped cream to how indulgent the hot chocolate was, it was delicious. The loaded fries were smashing too, especially considering I don't normally eat them, I pretty much ate the majority lmao as they just tasted soooo good.
Everything just tasted so fresh and home-grown, from the freshly cooked jacket potato, to the salad that came with it and the cheese that came with the fries and jacket tasted so mature as well. I have attached below photos of the food, please bare in mind I am still getting use to taking photos of food soooo it may not look the best lmao.
Once we had finished our delicious food, we popped into the little farm shop that they had there. Unfortunately, we did not buy anything as we didn't need anything but it did have a variety of produce that you could buy that was fresh. There was fresh fruit and vegetables, cuts of different meat, jars of jam and honey and various other products that you could buy. I'll attach below some photos of what the farm shop looked like from the inside. I did forget to take photos of the meat fridge and the fresh fruit and vegetables but just know it is also in the shop.
Once out of the farm shop, we visited the garden centre that was there, which had a very cute Halloween Haunted Tunnel that had been made and designed by those who work at Spadework. I cannot get over how cute and spooky the tunnel was; and although it was spooky, young children can also walk through it and not feel afraid. I will attach photos below that I took when we were inside the tunnel; both myself and Sam throughly enjoyed it, even if I did walk through the exit lol.
We thoroughly enjoyed our short but fun time at Spadework and will definitely be going back again next year! We're even considering going at Christmas time, especially if they do any events or have a Santa's Grotto. I have attached below of the sections of the pumpkin patch as when you walk in, there is a section full of the weird and misshaped pumpkins that you can purchase and then there is just a big area full of freshly picked pumpkins!
If you wish to visit Spadework, which is a charity who help people with disabilities and learning difficulties to have a more healthier, happier and fulfilling life, the address is Spadework, Teston Road, Offham, West Malling, Kent, ME19 5NA.
Overall, our experience at Spadework was amazing, from the super friendly and polite staff, to the scrumptious food, it was such a lovely afternoon out and I'm glad we chose to go and pick our pumpkins this year rather then go to Tesco and just choose a random one. I'm also super thankful that they had a car park and it wasn't just a field - if you know me, my worse fear is my car getting stuck in a field.
But anyway, that is all for this blog post, sorry it is very short but at least I uploaded something, right? Apologies that it is a bit late, butttt I have been hella busy with work and myself and Sam threw a Halloween party which took up a lot of our spare time. I am hoping to get a few posts ready to be published over the weekend as I was suppose to post one on Halloween but I got distracted.
I hope you have enjoyed this post,
Lou xox