I’ve never been good at remembering to take pictures when I’m out having fun, but my one exception is the pumpkin farm. Everyone looks good in fall photos, but especially babies. Therefore, I’ve come up with five great excuses reasons for a baby pumpkin farm outing.
5 Reasons For A Baby Pumpkin Farm Visit
- Pumpkin suits aren’t flattering on adults and bigger kids. Definitely, definitely dress your baby like a pumpkin for this visit! Everyone needs a pumpkin photo! Send it to Grandma, post it on your social media channels and keep it to show your grand kids some day.
- Pumpkin is good for babies. Mom Junction shares these nine health benefits of pumpkin for babies. Take one home and make pumpkin puree (recipe below). A word of warning, don’t feed your baby too much pumpkin. Pumpkin is known to ease constipation. I once left my one-year-old with my sister on Thanksgiving. She let him eat as much pumpkin pie as he wanted (which apparently was a LOT) and then sent him on a two-hour car ride home with me. It was not a pleasant trip.
- Getting outside Is healthy for the whole family. Motherly offers these six reasons why babies, in particular, benefit from outdoor time.
- Babies find animals fascinating. I don’t have any studies or articles to back this up – just personal experience. Babies love to watch the animals in the petting zoo. The more the animal moves the better. However, the CDC does warn that infants are more likely than big kids to get sick from exposure to animals. They offer some tips for keeping your baby healthy here.
- Winter is coming. Yes, sorry to remind you. In Denmark they leave their babies outside to nap in winter. Realistically, I’d rather follow their hygge tradition and cozy inside for the winter. So fall is the time to enjoy the Minnesota outdoors with baby.
Twin Cities Pumpkin Farms
We’ve created a map of the best pumpkin patches in each corner of the Minneapolis-St Paul metro area. Find the details on all kinds of family fun at each farm in our article PICK ONE: TWIN CITIES PUMPKIN PATCHES.
DIY pumpkin puree for babies – homemade pumpkin baby food
Make your own easy pumpkin puree. You’ll need the following:
-
- Blender, food processor or fork
- 1 5lb Pumpkin (A bigger or smaller pumpkin will simply make more or less puree.
- 2 tbsp olive oil (or vegetable oil)
- Cut the pumpkin in half and scoop out the innards and seeds. If you have bigger kids, they may enjoy roasting the seeds.
- Pour a little vegetable or olive oil and roll it around until it covers most of the pumpkin flesh
- Pop into an oven that has been preheated to 350. If you get to this step and haven’t preheated, go ahead and pop the pumpkin in. You may need to cook a few minutes longer at the end.
- Bake until you can stick a fork in the skin easily. Let cool.
- Puree. We like to use our Vitamix blender, but a food processor or a fork will work find.
- Feed it to your baby now or freeze in ice cube trays for later.
