Spudfest at the National Forest Adventure Farm

I wrote a few weeks ago about our first visit to the National Forest Adventure Farm. The kids really enjoyed themselves there, so it was with great excitement that we returned last weekend, with Daddy this time so that they could show him the wonders it held! We were also looking forward to finding out what this month’s Spudfest was all about about.

On arriving, there was only one place that Boo wanted to go. When we were there last month, they were trying to break the World Record for most scarecrows, and we took part and made our own. Well, they did break that record, so we’re excited to have been a part of that, and Boo was very keen to visit ‘Lily’, her scarecrow. Now, there’s quite a few of them there, as you can imagine, so we walked through rows and rows of them…

Until we found her! Boo was happy that she was amongst friends, and now has a photo of herself with her again, too!

Next up was Pig Racing, something we didn’t get to see last time, so we were pleased to be there just in time for this one. It’s introduced with the story of the Three Little Pigs, and then we’re advised that the pigs wanted to get their own back on the wolf, so went into training! The wolf comes along, the pigs are saddled up with little jockeys and they race!

Race excitement over, we looked round at all of the animals again, spotted how much the little piglets had grown, Boo ‘milked’ that cow that she loved the last time we were here, and we checked out the kitchen garden and read up about it..

We then went off to investigate Spudfest. The farm tells us that:

Each weekend this September when you visit the Farm you can pick your own potatoes to take home! Each child will be given a bag to fill and then you can dig in our potato plot and enjoy eating the ultra fresh spuds!

We have planted up 1/2 acre with over 11,000 potato plants which should produce up to 10 tons of spuds. That’s a lot of chips and mash!

I think this is a great idea. I like that there are events like this that keep you going back for more, and they engage children in all aspects of farming, too. To be able to experience digging up your own food and understanding where vegetables come from is both fun and educational. My kids certainly enjoyed it…

We took away a big bag of potatoes, so that’s mash for us a few days this week!

We then went over to the Barrel Stampede ride. The kids couldn’t wait to get on and be pulled along by the tractor, though when Little Man finally did get on, he cried all the way round! Boo loved it, though!

It was then all about the play areas. Both indoors and out, they are great here. The indoor soft play is big, so even on a busy Saturday, it didn’t feel as hellish as soft play can often feel! Both the under 5’s and big kids areas are good, and there was a face painter there, so Boo had her face painted for the very first time. Oh, and the air for blowing the balls up was clearly a big draw!

We then spent a fair bit of time outside, running from bouncing pillow, to sandpits, to slides, assault courses, football targets and more. They loved it!

Oh, and ‘sand angels’ were needed…

And then we managed to lure them away, finally, with the promise of a take-away…!

You can find out more about Spudfest here. We had yet another great day out there, and it struck me how we’d done lots of different activities to last time (so do check out my last post for details of more activities), and still hadn’t tried everything that the farm has to offer. There is so much to do there for little ones, and to be honest, the indoor and outdoor play areas alone would keep my two happy for hours, let alone everything else! And as with our last visit, everywhere was clean and tidy and the staff very friendly. If you’re looking for a family day out in the Midlands, I’d definitely recommend this one.

Disclosure: We received entrance FOC for the purposes of this post, but all words and opinions remain my own

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