[twitter]Sure, you can get your pumpkin from the grocery store but that’s not an authentic autumn experience!

One of the most fun things to do with kids in the fall is trudge through a muddy field searching for the perfect pumpkin to bring home to carve.

There aren’t a lot of Calgary pumpkin patches, but the ones that are around offer a variety of activities for a fun family morning or afternoon.

Butterfield Acres, The Calgary Corn Maze, Blue Grass Garden Center, as well as outlets in Drumheller, Bowden, and Sundre all offer pumpkins and fall festivals in October.

Scroll down for tips, admission, hours, and locations:

Butterfield Acres Harvest Pumpkin Hunt
254077 Rocky Ridge Road NW, Calgary [google map]
You need to reserve tickets in advance for a visit to the Butterfield Acres Pumpkin Patch. The farm sells tickets for specific time slots to visit to their pumpkin forest. Kids are loaded up on a wagon for a hay ride into the woods where pumpkins are hiding amongst the trees.

Once you get your pumpkin, you’re taken back to a craft area where you can paint your gourd, or glue felt, glitter, and feathers to it.

It’s a fun time, but it’s not cheap. Tickets are $15 for adults, and $13 for kids. Only kids get to grab the pumpkins, making this easily a $60 day for a family of four with only two medium pumpkins to come from the effort.

Calgary Corn Maze & Pumpkin Patch
284022 Township Road 224, Rockyview, AB [google map]
A visit to the Calgary Corn Maze is mandatory each fall. From the barrel train rides, to the jumping pillows, to the petting zoo, and corn cannons, there’s a lot more to do here than just getting lost in a corn maze.

In October, the Calgary Corn Maze adds pumpkins to the mix with a collection for purchase. So you get a fun day on the farm and then get your pick of perfect pumpkins harvested from around Southern Alberta.

Kids are $10, adults are $12, and pumpkins are sold in 3 sizes (jack-o-lanterns ($7), minis ($1), and pie pumpkins($4).) The proceeds from the pumpkin sales go to charity. In 2012, they supported Ronald McDonald House.

Blue Grass Garden Center
260130B Writing Creek Crescent, Balzac, Alberta [google map]
This one day event goes October 13 at Blue Grass Nursery. Admission is a donation to the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation.

Events and Activities include giant pumpkins, unusual gourds, bigger and better straw maze, Balzac Billy, petting zoo, hay rides, face painting, as well as pumpkin carving and colouring.

The highlight might just be the giant pumpkin smash when a huge one will be dropped off an 80ft crane.

Further outside of Calgary:

Drumheller Corn Maze [Drumheller] Fall festival, corn maze, haunted corn maze, kiddie (mini) corn maze, corn cannon. The Field of Screams Haunted Maze runs through October.

Kernels Corn Maze [Sundre] Corn maze, haunted corn maze, child-sized haybale maze, tractor-pulled hay rides, petting zoo.

Bowden SunMaze [Bowden] Follows organic practices, pumpkin patch- already gathered from the field, Fall festival, corn maze, straw or hay bale maze, tractor-pulled hay rides, face painting, and farm animals.