<a rel="attachment wp-att-2199" href="http://www.tashadoestulsa.com/2010/09/pumpkin-patch-7-ways/dsc07432/"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-2199" title="Carmichael's Pumpkin Patch" src="http://www.tashadoestulsa.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/DSC07432-500x375.jpg" alt="Carmichael's Pumpkin Patch" width="500" height="375" /></a>

To whet your appetite for the updated TDT directory of Tulsa-area pumpkin patches, here's a little how-to I wrote in my early days of blogging on how to conduct your own perfect pumpkin search. 

Be warned, however, that should you employ this search method, your friends' and family's social calendars will become suddenly and mysteriously full. I may or may not speak from experience here. 

<strong>1. Feel an intense urge to find a pumpkin patch at 5pm on a Sunday afternoon.</strong>

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Before you leave, tell your family, especially any and all young children, what's about to happen. Make sure the kids get good and excited about your journey - maybe even help them dream about what they'll get to carve into or draw on their pumpkin later that very evening - that is, after you get home from the pumpkin patch, which is surely still open tonight because, well, it's fall now. Duh.  

<strong>2. Don't bother to use the Internet or other resources to look up stories on or directories of pumpkin patches or farms in the Tulsa area.</strong> Daylight, it's a-wastin', and you can't be bothered with research.

<strong>3. Drive "strategically" through the rural areas of the metro in search of a good patch.</strong> Meaning, flip a coin to decide whether to turn right or left at intersections.

<strong>4. After one hour of hunting, interrupt friends' and family's evening plans</strong> with phone inquiries as to the location of their "favorite pumpkin patches - you know, the kind where you can pick your own?"

<strong>5. Stumble upon a real pumpkin patch - finally!</strong> Discover the operation closed 15 minutes before your arrival. Hold the youngest of your children up to the windows of the retail area, looking in vain for straggling staff people, chiming, "We've got a baby out here lookin' to pick his first pumpkin!," hoping to guilt someone into opening up.

<strong>6. Stare wistfully at off-limits pumpkin patch.</strong> Consider making off with one measly little pumpkin. Remember that a rural area plus stealing usually equals a sawed-off shot gun three inches from your hiney.

<strong>7. After two hours and no freshly harvested pumpkin</strong>, drive home listening to the musical stylings of the famished and disappointed offspring in the back seat.

<strong>8. Assuage bad-parent guilt</strong> by making three batches of <a href="http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/pumpkin-chocolate-chip-muffins/Detail.aspx">chocolate chip pumpkin muffins</a>, made from scratch using pumpkins purchased from good ol' <a href="http://www.reasors.com/">Reasor's</a>. 

Or, if you're a superstar like me, used canned pumpkin and say you used fresh. Your secret is safe with me. 

<a rel="attachment wp-att-2202" href="http://www.tashadoestulsa.com/2010/09/pumpkin-patch-7-ways/dsc02510/"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-2202" title="Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins" src="http://www.tashadoestulsa.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/DSC02510-500x375.jpg" alt="Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins" width="500" height="375" /></a>

Finally, after you stuff your kids with pumpkin and chocolate until they succumb to the sugar crash of a lifetime, feel like a pretty good parent after all.

<em>Originally published Oct. 14, 2008.</em>