For more than a decade, Westbrae Nursery has been selling pumpkins in the weeks before Halloween as a benefit for Albany’s Cornell Elementary about three blocks to the north.
510 Families has put together a guide to pumpkin patches and corn mazes around the East Bay and beyond.
The Oaklandside recently stopped by the Piedmont Pumpkin Patch, which has been providing Halloween fun since 1996.
Prices at the Westbrae Pumpkin Patch range from $2.50 to $27, depending on size, with no fee to enter the patch.
Cornell Elementary student Aylah Levy, 6, visited the patch earlier this month in hopes of finding a “clean, orange, tiny” pumpkin — she ended up leaving with three. For the budget-conscious folks out there, Westbrae offers a three-for-$5 deal on mini pumpkins.
“I liked the spooky blow-up balloon, and the decorations,” Aylah said. “It was fun to push the cart around and collect pumpkins.”
When Cornell’s partnership with Westbrae started in 2010, the fundraiser, which goes toward programming and school activities for kids, raised $1,700 for the school, said Hannah Levy, Aylah’s parent and a member of the Cornell Elementary PTA. Last year, the patch raised $30,385 for the school.
Fall-themed baked goods, also benefiting Cornell, will be available for purchase at the pumpkin patch between 12 p.m.-3 p.m. on Oct. 14 and 21.
Open daily through Oct. 31, 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. 1272 Gilman St.
