Stephanie Brace prefers to pick her Halloween pumpkins off the vine.
That’s why Brace brought her three young daughters on a sunny afternoon last week to the Carpinito Brothers U-Pick Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze along the West Valley Highway in Kent, just north of South 272nd Street across from the Smith Brothers Dairy.
“I like to get the one I like the most,” Brace, of Des Moines, said as her girls pulled the prized pumpkin on a cart along the dirt path.
Thousands of pumpkins fill the Carpinito Brothers fields. About a half-dozen workers line up already picked pumpkins along the main dirt road to the patch by handing them out of the back of a trailer pulled by a tractor.
While dozens of people search for the perfect pumpkin, others head off to the corn maze to see if they can find their way through the vast rows.
“I’ve done it before,” said Brace when asked if she would attempt to navigate through the corn maze.
There would be no attempt on this day by Brace and her daughters at the corn maze.
“I don’t want to be there all day,” Brace said.
Dennis and Jennifer Weigel of Auburn brought their 1-year-old daughter Grace to the pumpkin patch for the first time. Grace had a huge smile as she sat in her red wagon next to a big pumpkin and posed for pictures by her parents as well as a newspaper photographer.
“We had to do the pumpkin patch thing,” Jennifer Weigel said.
Many people flock to the Carpinito Brothers patch every year. The parking lot can hold up to 350 cars. The patch is open from 9 a.m. to dusk daily through Halloween.
“It’s pretty good, it all depends on the weather,” Andy Carpinito said about business this season. “Some people wait until the middle of the month. But we have five full weekends this year before Halloween and that only happens like once every 800 years or something.”
The more weekends, the more the pumpkin business booms.
“That’s good for us because it gives us five chances,” Carpinito said.
The weekends are the most popular, but people can hit the patch any day of the week. Many people also come to the patch on Halloween day.
“People come out with their kids to do the corn maze in costume,” Carpinito said.
Admission to the corn maze is $7 for those ages 13 and older and $5 for kids ages 5-12. Pumpkins cost 33 cents per pound.
Other activities at the site include a hayride behind a tractor for $3 per person. Freshly roasted corn is available for $2.50 per ear. There’s also kettle corn made on the spot as well as plenty of fresh produce.
As people wander through the pumpkin patch, they can stick their faces in wooden cutouts of pumpkins for photos. Most customers last week brought a camera along to capture the pumpkin patch moment.
The Carpinito Brothers own a couple hundred acres of pumpkins across the Green River Valley. They even sold an 85-pound pumpkin.
“We’ve got a good bunch of pumpkins every year,” Carpinito said.
If you go
What: Carpinito Brothers U-Pick Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze
When: 9 a.m. to dusk daily through Halloween
Where: 6868 South 277th Street, Kent
Cost: Corn maze, $7 ages 13 and older, $5 ages 5-12
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