Pick o' the pumpkins.Byline: Susan Palmer The Register-Guard WALTERVILLE - To find the pumpkin patch at Herrick Farms, you get on a big wagon with hay bales to sit on, and a tractor pulls it. The tractor pulls you past the dahlia dahlia (däl`yə, dăl`–) [for Anders Dahl, 1751–89, Swedish botanist and pupil of Linnaeus], any plant of the genus Dahlia and gladiola beds, past the peach orchard (yum!) and the cauliflower cauliflower (kô`lĭflou'ər, käl`ĭ–), variety of cabbage, with an edible head of condensed flowers and flower stems. Broccoli is the horticultural variety (botrytis); both were cultivated in Roman times. patch (ho hum) and the apple orchard where jack-o'-lanterns with smiling faces sit tucked beneath the trees. Then you pass the cornfields, and you come around a corner, and there they are - round and orange in the Monday afternoon sun. Farm owner Paula Herrick gives you a bag and says you can pick your favorite pumpkin. And if you are 5-year-old Wyatt Garoutte, you pick a pumpkin that is bigger than your head, so big you can hardly get it into your bag. "I picked it because I can barely even lift it. I always have my pumpkins big," says Wyatt, who, when he is not hoisting squash in Walterville is a kindergartner kin·der·gart·ner also kin·der·gar·ten·er n. 1. A child who attends kindergarten. 2. A teacher in a kindergarten. at Centennial Elementary School in Springfield. Wyatt has plans for this pumpkin. He'll open it up and scoop out all the seeds and cut a face into it, a scary face with big teeth. While Wyatt plots his pumpkin art, 16 other students from Nancy Lewis' kindergarten class fan out across the field. Some, like Wyatt, go for the big ones. Others, like Genesis Rodriguez, choose pumpkins not much bigger than a grapefruit. "I'm going to put a smile on my pumpkin," she says. It's an autumn rite of passage rite of passage n. A ritual or ceremony signifying an event in a person's life indicative of a transition from one stage to another, as from adolescence to adulthood. in Lane County, the visit to the pumpkin patch. Hundreds of local schoolchildren schoolchildren school npl → écoliers mpl; (at secondary school) → collégiens mpl; lycéens mpl schoolchildren school will journey to several nearby farms. Paula Herrick has hauled kids around her Walterville place since her own daughter was 5 years old. "She's 30 now," she says. It's more than just a fun field trip, punctuated by squeals of kid joy at the mud oozing oozing exudation of fluid. around the tractor wheels or at the sight of a horse and a llama llama (lä`mə), South American domesticated ruminant mammal, Lama glama, of the camel family. Genetic studies indicate that it is descended from the guanaco. in a nearby pasture. It also would be a learning experience when teacher Lewis took her students back to class. There they would do a little pumpkin math: weighing their vegetables and measuring how big around they are. But pumpkin patches aren't just for the little ones. At Herrick Farms, grown-ups can come along, too. The free wagon rides happen daily, weekdays from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. and weekends from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Herrick Farms is at 88088 Millican Road, off Highway 126 in Walterville. It's open daily from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. CAPTION(S): After sensibly picking pumpkins that are small enough to fit nicely into their carrying bags, Centennial Elementary students (from left) Vanessa Conklin and Kennadee Short watch with amusement as classmates Classmates can refer to either:
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