Garlic, Pumpkins, and Vampires!

Built around the life cycle of a pumpkin, the morning brings together a talk, pumpkin carving and planting garlic to take home, with trails inside the museum and around the park. 

Families book a place in one of two groups, A or B, of 25 children each. Both groups start together at 11:00 with a short welcome from Adam. One group then goes into the museum for Adam's talk while the other carves pumpkins in the marquee, and at 11:50 they swap. At 12:45 everyone meets in the garden area to plant garlic, and the event finishes at 13:20. Everything is in Welsh and English.

Tickets are pre-bookable for £5.00 plus 7%+VAT booking fee charged by Ticketsource.

The life cycle of a pumpkin

Adam's talk takes place in the museum, around a display of pumpkins of every colour and size, from the familiar orange to blue and purple ones, with some cut open so children can see the flesh and seeds inside. He follows the pumpkin from seed to flower to fruit and back to seed, explains why we cannot plant pumpkin seeds at this time of year, and why seeds from a shop-bought pumpkin rarely grow into pumpkins. Along the way he will give fun facts, where pumpkins first came from, and the stories and traditions of Halloween and Calan Gaeaf.

The talk ends with what to do with the leftovers: seeds roasted into a treat, pulp made into soup, and the rest returned to the soil as compost. 

The group then wanders the museum, looking for the colours of autumn in the collection and hunting for the festival's hidden letters.

Pumpkin carving

In the marquee outside the Billiard Room, children carve their own pumpkin with their adult beside them, using child-friendly carving tools. The pulp and seeds they scoop out go into buckets for compost, so nothing is wasted and the life cycle carries on. The Billiard Room has facilities for washing hands, cleaning up and storing pumpkins.

Garlic and vampires

The two groups come together in the garden area for the final activity. Adam tells the old belief that garlic keeps vampires and bad spirits away, and explains why late October, just as the pumpkins finish, is the right time to plant garlic. 

Each child fills a biodegradable cup with compost made at Parc Howard, pushes in a clove of garlic, and writes their name on a lolly stick. At home the whole cup goes straight into the ground or a pot, and by next summer it will have grown into a bulb of garlic. Each family also takes home their carved pumpkin and if they want, they can take festival's activity pack.

Trails

Two trails run all day and spell the same word. Inside, the festival's letter hunt leads families through the museum; outside, a volunteer's trail of pumpkins leads them around the park with letters on. Families can do one or both, and the inside trail still works if it rains. They suit families who arrive early or stay on after 13:00, and younger brothers and sisters who need a walk.