A Day At The Farm

During a freakishly warm October day I decided the family should get dressed and go apple picking. I'm all about exposing my children to new experiences. As a child I remember going apple picking on a school trips and bringing home a bag full of the crunchy treats to my mom who made quick work out of pies..yummy. So now that we live in an area where there are a number of accessible farms I figured why not start an apple picking tradition. It didn't take long to convince the hubby to go. He enjoys doing things with the family and loves to drive so we piled in the car and were off. As soon as we pulled up to the entrance of the farm I realized everyone had the same idea because it was packed. I hate crowds but was determined to power through. At the entrance there was a sign that read PYO(pick your own) apples, peaches, raspberries, tomatoes and pumpkins. Sweet!, in my mind we hit pay dirt and would get enough produce for a few days of meals. Alas my joy quickly faded once we got to the picking field where another sign read no more apples and peaches. Oh well there are still all the other stuff to choose from, we decided to start with raspberries.

There was a bit of disorganization which was annoying to me. There was no one to show you how to pick the raspberries properly. Not even a sign or handout with instructions. All we had was a map of the farm and a plastic bag to hold the pickings so we had to figure it out on our own. After a few minutes we had the technique down. I can't imagine how many plants are ruined by newbies. The farm was massive and the crops were really spread out plus the sun was particularly brutal, beating down right on top of us. We decided to push ahead and enjoy the experience. We walked up and down rows and rows of raspberry bushes trying to find the plumpest and juiciest berries ripe for the picking. Ethan was quite content in his stroller. He seemed intrigued with the scenery.

My husband was very methodical about his picking. He would reach down and inside the bush at the risk of being scratched and having his clothes snagged to find the perfect berry. Shania and I were breezing through grabbing what we saw on top of the bush. After about an hour we were done. Remember it was hot and are not used to manual labor..lol.

Next we decided to head over to the pumpkin patch. Turns out we could not pick any tomatoes, too late in the season. It seemed like the walk took forever and pushing a stroller over dirt and gravel is quite irritating but I kept telling myself family time, new experiences...urgh. Once we got to the pumpkin patch I was quite disappointed. There were only small pumpkins left, all the big, odd shaped ones were already gone. So we decided to try and make the best of it and snap a few pics for the memory book.





We decided it was time to go and check out. I was anxious to go to the farms general store and do my kinda harvesting, removing produce from the save shelf of a store and paying a cashier.lol. We had a little over a pound of organic raspberries and it only cost $3.00..wow! At check out I noticed a man with a big basket of apples. My mouth dropped open. I asked the cashier why he was able to pick apples and she said he probably picked them up from the ground. Had I known we all would've been on our hands and knees scrounging for apples. Oh well, I know for next time.
The general store was a total mad house, once again the organization was totally off. There were way too many people in the store at once. I barely had space to look around so I ended up getting us some ice cream. Of course we couldn't be there licking cones without sharing with E so he had his first taste of ice cream.



And Loved It!


I mean he really loved it!

First Milk Mustache



So while we were walking back to our car I dropped my cone..NOOOOO!!!!! I was so pissed, I picked it up and slammed it into the nearest trash can. To onlookers I must have looked like an insane woman. After all day in that heat the ice cream was a nice reprieve but sadly it was not to be. It's not like my belly needed the extra calories anyway :(


Although though there were hiccups, it was a good day with the family that resulted in a tasty raspberry tart for dinner. Hooray for family time and farm fresh foods.

Few more pics from the day