Pick-Your-Own farms are not only a great place to take the kids so that they can see where their food originates – not really one of those cold aisles in the grocery store – but it brings everyone in closer touch to the sights and smells of nature. Every trip is a learning experience for me because, since I’m not a farmer, I don’t really know all of the different varieties of each kind of fruit and vegetable, so it’s always amazing to realize how many exist. I’ve taken a few u-pick trips already this summer, and today I’ll report on some more. If you have pictures and comments on farms in your area, feel free to submit them and I’ll report on other regions.
The clusters of grapes at Larriland Farm (in Woodbine, MD) are absolutely picture perfect. Usually I buy grapes for lunches and snacks, but as soon as I saw them hanging in abundance all around me I started thinking of canning some jam. I don’t think I’m going to get to it this year, especially since I don’t want to use processed sugar. What else can you do with grapes?
There is a very large Larriland Farm store with a variety of things besides produce, like drinks and pies. You do not have to pick your own. There’s a maze for the kids and picnic tables.
Depending on what day you go to a pick-your-own farm, different types of produce will be available. When I went, the raspberries and blackberries were picked out, but they’ll re-open the berry rows in a couple of days after more of them are ripe. If you live on or near a farm with this kind of variety, eating in season is a lot more obvious than if you get all your food at a mass market. Open picking fields on this trip were tomatoes, grapes, apples, kale, and broccoli; so you can see there is a wide selection.
These pictures show how the rows of different varieties of grapes grow.
Lewis Orchards is a very large farm market at the intersection of MD State Route 28 (Darnestown Road) and Peach Tree Road. It has been a family owned and operated business since 1888. Behind the market are u-pick apple trees that are completely loaded now. Never pick apples up off the ground because they cannot sell them in case there are any bugs or bacteria on them.
Here are rows of different varieties of apples as far as you can see. I couldn’t believe how packed the trees were with ripe apples.
Kingsbury Orchard (in Dickerson, MD) has peaches, apples, pears, nectarines, and plums. I had no idea how many varieties of these fruits exist right here in my state. For example, there are over 30 types of yellow peaches and about 20 types of white peaches just on this one farm, and 16 different types of apples. They ripen at different times, so if someone knows of a specific variety you want, you can look at the schedule on the orchard’s website.
