Welcome, Fall: Pumpkin Patch Will Soon Return

It’s still officially summer until Friday. But the sun gives off that certain slant of light, and you can feel the morning chill in the air.

On Saturday, despite temperatures in the low 80s, the Osteen family was very much in an autumn mindset. They were clearing off sections of their Marsh Creek Road property to make room for what has become a fall and early  tradition for many Contra Costa County families: their Clayton Valley Pumpkin Farm and Christmas Trees.

The pumpkin farm opens Saturday, Oct. 1. Two days earlier, truckloads of pumpkins in all sizes and colors—orange, white, and green—will arrive from growers in the Central Valley, and be arranged in tidy plots.

“They look great,” Sharon Osteen said about the pumpkins, explaining she had seen them during a recent visit to the Central Valley. “It’s been a great growing season.”

The Osteen family farm is located east of downtown Clayton, where suburbia starts to give way to the country as Marsh Creek Road winds its way around the flanks of Mount Diablo. The family business started as a U-pick and vegetable stand in 1980, and has since grown into an attraction for families and school groups.

The Osteens' “Pumpkin Playland” features a giant tunnel made of more than 750 straw bales. Kids can also ride on a trackless train that tours the gardens and visit the petting zoo housing goats, alpacas, pigs and chickens.

Adults can browse in the gift shop, which sells everything you need to carve a pumpkin and decorate your home and garden for Haloween and Thanksgiving: yard stakes, garden flags and unique gourds, pumpkins and squash. 

You can also pick up fresh, locally crafted pumpkin treats—pumpkin bread, cookies and pumpkin whoopee pies. They come from Concord-based Rachel Dunn Chocolates, which will also sell her famous giant caramel apples at the Clayton pumpkin patch.

The Osteens' pumpkin farm is open daily through Oct. 31 from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. The farm will host a scarecrow costume contest on Saturday, Oct. 15, with prizes given to kids in categories from infant to teens. The contest is free, but due to the popularity of the contest and space limited in each category, you should reserve a space by filling out a registration form on the patch’s website.

Starting the Friday after Thanksgiving, the Osteens will sell fir trees grown in Washington and freshly cut once they reach Clayton.

The pumpkin farm is at 1060 Pine Lane in Clayton, just off Marsh Creek Road. For more information, visit the website at www.cvpumpkinfarm, call 925-672-5198 or email info@cvpumpkinfarm.com