Tomorrow (September 30th) marks the first weekend of our Fall Open House!!

We invited you to come to the farm on Friday and Saturday to enjoy an array of fun activities like…

Our Oops! Sale (always a favorite!) Come early for the most and best selection. Begins at 10am on Friday.

Make your own Scarecrow Activity: Create an adorable scarecrow (pictured below). We have everything you need and the cost is $35. No appointment necessary.

Aren't they adorable?

The Make-Your-Own Scarecrow Tent

Of course, our Pumpkin Patch is OPEN! Pick your own pumpkins and ornamental gourds. The prices range from .50 – 5.00.

In addition to our Fall Open House events, Meadowbrooke Gourds will be at the  National Apple Harvest Festival Arendtsville, PA October 1st and 2nd as well as Waterloo Gardens Exton, PA on October 1st for a Create Your Own Jack O’Lantern Event! We are excited to kick off a fun October!

This year, along with your typical Jack O’Lantern pumpkin carving, try these creative decorating ideas! Don’t forget to stop by Meadowbrooke Gourds’ pumpkin patch to pick your own pumpkins on Tuesday – Saturday from 10am -4pm. We have many shapes and sizes to choose from!

Make Pumpkin Porcupines: 

photo courtesy marthastewart.com

This project from marthastewart.com is simple and adorable! Use big pumpkins for the porcupines’ bodies, and attach the heads with toothpicks. To create quills, push white holiday lights through drilled holes that are slightly smaller than the lights.

Entertain with a Pumpkin Party Cooler:

photo courtesy marthastewart.com

Also, courtesy of Martha Stewart, this pumpkin cooler is sure to wow your guests this fall! Click here for the entire project instructions.

A No-Carving Decorating Technique: 

photo courtesy of familycircle.com

We just love this creative *No Carving Necessary* pumpkin decorating idea from FamilyCircle.com . Simple dry fall leaves and glue them to your pumpkin! Finish with Mod Podge if you desire.

Please feel free to share your pumpkin decorating ideas! 

We always love reading others ideas for crafting their dried gourds! There are literally endless possibilities. We especially loved this luminary project for fall from Better Homes and Gardens. It is simple, beautiful and sure to give your home a cozy touch. To get started, the article details some tips for drying gourds for those that are growing and drying your own. If you would like to skip that step, Meadowbrooke Gourds offers raw gourds that are already cleaned and dried for you. We have many, many shapes and sizes to choose from and they are available online here.

This project involves wood burning your gourd. We go into more detail about wood burning in a previous blog post. 

From Better Homes and Gardens (bhg.com):

1. Starting with a dried, cleaned gourd you must first cut the gourd. To make cutting the gourds easier and help prevent cracking and breaking, draw the cutting line with a pencil. Using a crafts knife, puncture small slits along the pencil line so it resembles a dotted line. Use the knife to cut between the lines. Smooth out any uneven spots.

2. Using the crafts knife, cut a 3-inch round hole in the bottom of each gourd. Make sure the gourds sit flat. If necessary, slightly shave the bottoms of the gourds so they sit flat.

3. Clean out the inside material.

6. Working in a well-ventilated room or outdoors, use the woodburning tool to burn a circle through the gourd. Burn two more holes to create the three-dot triangular motif.

7. Repeat the burning process around the entire gourd, placing the motifs about 2 inches apart.

8. Paint the gourd with a light coat of raw umber watercolor. Use the brown marker to make stripes on the stems. After the paint dries, spray the gourds with varnish.

9. Place a tea light in a votive cup and slip the gourd over the cup. Make sure the candle’s wick is trimmed short so the flame does not touch the gourd. Never leave burning candles unattended or use a candle without the cup.

These beautiful, fall luminaries are easy to craft! (image by Better Homes and Gardens)

We are pleased to announce that the Meadowbrooke Pumpkin Patch is NOW OPEN! Pick your own pumpkins and fresh ornamental Gourds on Tuesday – Saturday from 10am -4pm. We have lots to choose from ranging in price from $0.50 – $5.00. Bring the whole family for a fun afternoon of pumpkin-picking! We will have the Pumpkin Patch open during our Fall Open House dates! Read more about our Fall Events here.

Pick your own pumpkins at our farm!

We will be posting some fun ideas for decorating with your fresh pumpkins and ornamental gourds on our blog so stay tuned!

We love fall for oh-so many reasons!! One of those reasons is our FALL OPEN HOUSE! We are kicking off the first Open House weekend on September 30th at 10am with our famous Oops! Sale. Also, on September 30th and October 1st we will be holding our Make-your-Own Scarecrow activity!! (While supplies last.)

There is no appointment needed. Come to the Farm and create this adorable toddler-sized scarecrow! We hope to see you there.

Read more about our open house dates here or download our pdf open house flyer. 

As we gear up for fall, we all know how quickly time flies and Halloween will be here before we know it. We would like to introduce you to our newest gourd to add to your Halloween collection – Zelda our friendly witch! She is approximately 6 inches in diameter and comes with an amber light. She has a green head, black raffia hair and a black gourdkin as her nose. Zelda is also our September Product of the Month.

Click photo to purchase!

Send an unexpected gift to a friend this Halloween – Zelda The Witch plus these adorable witch hat cookies from squidoo.com 0r serve them up at your Halloween parties. They are so very easy to make and the kids will love them! The best part, no baking required!

image courtesy of squidoo.com

Here is all you will need:

1 (4.25-ounce) tube orange or red decorating frosting
1 (11 1/2-ounce) package fudge-striped shortbread cookies (32 cookies)
1/2 (13-ounce) package milk chocolate kisses, unwrapped (32)

Directions:

Pipe a small mound of frosting in center of each chocolate-covered cookie bottom; press a chocolate kiss on frosting. Pipe a frosting band and bow around base of each kiss. Taa-daa!

Read original recipe here.