Strawberry & Raspberry Picking!

Today John and I took Johnny to Berry Patch Farms in Brighton, Colorado (right outside Denver).  If you would like to check out Berry Patch Farms, click here.  The day started out kind of cold & rainy but by the time we got ready to go to the farm, it was warming up and ended up being really nice and sunny but not too hot.  The drive was about thirty minutes from our apartment.  I heard about this through a Denver Mommies group online of which I belong.  Some of the moms were supposed to meet there today, but it ended up just being me because of illnesses or cancellations.  I almost didn't go because I didn't feel good, but this morning I felt like going (I was feeling a lot better) so John and I packed up Johnny and decided to go pick some fruit before his afternoon class.

When we got there they were loading up a tractor to take visitors to the strawberry fields, which was a bit of a distance from the main buildings.  Also, they didn't want people walking out there by themselves because of other crops and haystacks that weren't stacked properly right now (they had those roped off and had warning signs, so it was safe, they were just being cautious).  So, we crammed ourselves like sardines onto the back of the trailer that the tractor was pulling.  There were a lot of other moms with toddlers there on a sort of play date, so the trailer was full.  And strangely ALL of the toddlers had the blondest hair (I wonder if they were related??).  When we go to the strawberry fields, Johnny immediately ran off to play with some cones...

He ended up moving all of the cones about a foot to one side--luckily they were only marking where the tractor was stopping, so it didn't reveal a dangerous hole or anything.  While John watched Johnny playing with the cones, I started making my way down the rows of strawberry plants, filling up my quart containers.  There were still plenty of bright red juicy strawberries on the plants, even though this is late in the season.  The owner told me that last week they had HUGE strawberries (bummer).  But I ended up filling up about 2 quarts of strawberries in about twenty minutes.  Not too shabby.  The awesome part about this farm is that all the berries (strawberries & raspberries, which you could pick yourself) and I'm pretty sure all the rest of their produce that they sell in their store is ORGANIC (anyone who knows us well, knows that we love organic).  Also, you can eat as many strawberries and raspberries as you want as you are picking them.  Johnny definitely took advantage of that.  As soon as he was done rearranging the cones, he ran down the row I was picking strawberries in and as soon as he saw the strawberries, he took his binky out and started grabbing strawberries out of the container and shoving them in his mouth.  Good thing they were organic! :)

 

you can see the mountains in the distance! this farm is NE of Denver, so further away from the mountains, but you can still see them.

Ignore the t-shirt, I wore what I didn't mind getting dirty. :)  And I really am happy, the sun was in my eyes & my 2 yr old was throwing a huge tantrum when the picture was being taken.

Johnny probably ate the equivalent of 10 large strawberries (it was really like 20 small ones).  I kept having to pick more to make up for his appetite.  I felt a little bad until I looked around and saw that the other toddlers and adults were also shoving their faces full of strawberries (and the owner explicitly said "eat as many as you want while you are picking").  After we filled up the two quarts of strawberries, we got back on the tractor when it came back and went back to the main building.  They weigh your strawberries and then they will keep them on a shelf with a number (kind of like checking your coat) while you go pick other produce.

John & Johnny outside of the main store after we picked strawberries.  

After we weighed & stored our strawberries, we picked up the pint-size containers and went raspberry-picking!  Growing up, I used to love picking raspberries at my grandma's house (she has an AWESOME garden) and making smoothies or eating them plain.  Usually my oldest male cousin would get to them first and eat all the raspberries, but sometimes I would get there first. :) It was fun to pick the raspberries (they are easier to pick than strawberries because you can use one hand and they are at chest-level)--the darker the better! :) Yum!  

We picked 4 pints of raspberries before we realized that we needed to go so that John could get to his afternoon class on time.  We definitely lost track of time.  I hope we can go back there again before it gets too cold.  We plan on going there frequently next summer since they have cheap organic produce and it is a fun experience to pick fruit together as a family.  Johnny will probably be old enough next summer to help pick the berries too (rather than destroying everything in his path & playing with dirt clods).  All in all we made off with a HUGE amount of organic berries and cherry tomatoes.  We ended up paying about 1/2 of what it would have cost us for non-organic produce (of the equivalent weight) at a grocery store and 1/3 of what it would have cost us for organic produce (of the equivalent weight) at a grocery store.  Our son is a fruit monster so we plan on eating part of the berries in the next couple of weeks but we plan on freezing the rest so we can have fresh berries during the winter.  I hope to go back to the farm when we have more time in the next week and pick some more to freeze.

This is the fruit we brought home today: 

 Isn't God's creations yummy?! :)  

The best part of the whole trip: Johnny fell asleep within SECONDS of getting in the car.  All that walking and eating really wore him out. :)  He was covered in dirt from head to toe, but he was happy and he was sleeping, so who could complain??