UBC October 2024 - Pumpkin Farm

If you've been following me for a while you know I have this specific fall happy place - actually it's a number of places all belonging to one - I guess you have to call it "enterprise". It started out as a farm substituting their income with the sale of pumpkins. As they grew they developed the idea of expanding their activities towards an event farm. They set up the most amazing "sculptures" made of hundreds of pumpkins. 

People loved it, and soon it got crowded. They opened a second site that offered more parking and public transportation. I forgot to mention that the original Jucker Farm, that's what they are called, is located up a hill at the border of a small lake. It is quite remote, and there's no bus or train. The parking lot holds 100 spots. By far no enough for the tourists. Automobilists are stubborn, I must know, I am one of them, they still drive up there, discover the lot is full, so they decide to just stay there - and wait. Dozens of other cars also wait their turn, and in the process they block the only main road leading through the small village, upsetting its citizens, which I fully untderstand. 

Every year the farm communicates via social media that visitors please don't use their cars. But how else are they supposed to get there? From the closest tiny train station is a 25 minutes' uphill hike. Some years they offered shuttle busses. I don't know how often they ran, but apparently it wasn't enough, and it was only on weekends.

This year the courageously announced that as a countermeasure agains the over tourism, they were going to reduce the duration of the pumpkin exhibition from nearly three months to four weeks. How is this helpful, you're going to ask? If thousands of visitors spread out their trip over many weeks, aren't they all going to visit during the four weeks now? 

Well, the four weeks coincide with two weeks of fall break, some people probably won't be able to make it at all. The. others are going to have to pay. Yes, until last year, this elaborate pumpkin exhibition was free of charge. Well, you most probably not only had lunch or at least coffee and homemade cake, but you also shopped at the Hofladen, the farmer's market. They offer pumpkin and a lot of vegetables, fruit and berries, dairy products, jams, pasta, bread, you name it.

So in addition to shrinking the exhibition period, they also charge an entrance fee. They range from weekdays / online (CHF 10, about USD 10) to weekend box office on site (15 bucks). Children younger than 16 are free. You wouldn't believe the whining social media users. They just don't want to understand that they're part of the problem and have to change their attitude. 

If I had to bet I'd claim that these are the people who spend money on fast food, movie tickets and high end sneakers without batting an eye, but they think because in the past enjoying the pumpkins was free, they're still entitled to go there without spending money. One can only hope that they'll follow up on their threats and stay away.

I went there using public transportation. I took a bus, a train, another train and another bus, from door to door it took a full two hours for a trip that could be done by car within one hour. 

As always they did a fantastic job setting up pumpkins. This year's theme is movies. For this reason you were greeted by a gigantic popcorn container right at the entrance.

In other years I always visited on weekdays, and I couldn't really tell a difference. The parking was almost full, and the obnoxious people who won't move on after having taken their pictures, are still there ;-) All in all I enjoyed my short visit. Since I had to observe the bus schedule I didn't stay too long, and I also couldn't stop at the airport location, so I'll do that on another day. 

What do you think of the concept as such? Would you pay for your visit?