15 October 2012

Jucker Farmart – Pumpkin Season!

It’s a certain of year and for the people of Jucker Farmart in Switzerland that means only one thing – pumpkins!  The farm, located in Seegräben, a municipality in the canton of Zürich, sees the pumpkin harvest as a chance to show off their produce.  Each year they produce some (not so) serious pumpkin related art and this year is no exception.

The subject for each year’s pumpkin exhibition is chosen to represent the zeitgeist of the moment, something which has had a real impact on contemporary popular culture. So, of course, this year’s display is centered on Olympic sports.

So, a variety of sports are represented.  There is dressage, boxing, shot put and swimming.

We should mention the slightly out of place bobsleigh, too - usually reserved for the Winter Olympics. Well, this is Switzerland, after all.

Talking of which, last year the subject chosen was Switzerland itself. The Swiss flag may be straightforward enough to reproduce, but just imagine the pumpkins needed to render it in 3 dimensions. Recreating the matterhorn, however, is something else entirely.

The farm is a working one, however, and so visitors can buy organic produce from the farm shop – and not only pumpkins either!  The farm is only a thirty minute drive from Zurich and so easily accessible.

Sometimes, though, even the careful Swiss cannot avoid accidents. We don't know the exact details here, so we will leave it up to your own imagination to decide what, exactly, happened here...

Our favorites must be the dinosaurs which featured in 2010, which the farm created with the help of the Dinosaur Museum in Aahtal. Yet if you tire of the pumpkin exhibits (surely not!) then you can take in the gorgeous vistas of the Swiss countryside as well.

The brave at heart can even hollow at one of the enormous giant pumpkins and use it to boat on the nearby lake...

Jucker FarmArt is a great day out for people of any age – but a sense of fun cannot be acquired on the premises.  You must take that with you!

First Image Credit Flickr User planetjones