Pumpkin heads

With Halloween fast approaching, is your porch guarded by a squatty orange sentry yet? If not, head to a local pumpkin patch before the pickings get too slim. Unlike the pumpkin stands in grocery-store parking lots, an actual pumpkin farm provides a real experience. Take a hayride, pet a goat, mosey through a haunted barn. Warm up with fresh apple cider or a pumpkin doughnut. After all that (and maybe a round of mini-golf or a trip through a corn maze), you’ll be ready to start shopping for your perfect homegrown future jack-o’-lantern. It’s that time of year, so local pumpkin patches are open seven days a week, though some activities are reserved for weekends only. Admission to the KC Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze (29755 West 191st Street in Gardner, 913-484-6251) is $8. The same price gets you into Carolyn’s Country Cousins Pumpkin Patch (17607 Northeast 52nd Street in Liberty, 816-781-9196) Monday through Thursday; admission costs $10 Friday through Sunday.— Crystal K. Wiebe

Saturdays, Sundays, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Mondays-Fridays, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Starts: Sept. 25. Continues through Oct. 31, 2010