Pick a Peck of Peppers and Peaches

Every Saturday I try to find a fun activity that we can do as a family. Yes, just like every other mom, Event Coordinator is also added to my list of titles. This past Saturday, we drove upstate to go fruit and veggie picking. It was supposed to take an hour and 25 minutes but with traffic and bathroom breaks it took about 2. Needless to say, my girls were wigging out! They went through all the snacks I packed so once that was done, they were bored and restless. Why do I always forget to pack toys for the car?? When will I ever learn?!?

Just in time before major meltdowns, we finally get there. It's called Lawrence Farms Orchards - up in Newburgh, NY.

First things first - wagon and ice cream.

Hmmm, I thought we were here to pick fruit. Don't know if it was the ice cream or just finally being set free, but their moods definitely changed. I had happy kids again.

Although I am a complete Total City Girl, I really do like coming up to the mountains. When I was a kid we spent our summers in the Catskills (with every other NY Jew) at the bungalow colonies. That's a whole other story for another time. Let me just stick to produce here.

This place was really cute - a country store

great views,

a lake,

some animals

The goats even have their own treehouse!

Apparently last weekend the best things to pick were peppers, squash, peaches, plums and apricots.

Our first stop was for peppers.

How many green peppers does one family need? My girls apparently didn't think of that. They were just having too much fun. Picking here, picking there, picking picking everywhere!!

Even the hubbs got into the act.

Why is it that the baby ends up carrying everything??

That's what you get for being the youngest and having a bossy older sister. I'm sure my sister had her share of these experiences. Oh, but wait. I'm not bossy.

Then my sister and her family finally show up. My brother-in-law and I coordinated the night before. So, uh, why were they so far behind us?? Oh yeah, that's right - he didn't think to take the directions with him. Smart thinking.

By this time my kids are starving and fortunately they have a mom that does think of food so of course I packed lunch. They have picnic tables behind the store so there was plenty of room to eat our lunch. I packed plenty of food.

Apparently it looked so good,

the farm dog decided to help himself to my daughter's sandwich!

He just snatched it right off the table right where she was sitting. I kind of lost my appetite at that point. Did I ever mention I'm not an animal person? I'm especially not a pet person. Don't even get me started on cats!!

OK - now we can get back to picking.

My nephew jumps in the wagon with the girls and we're off.

But which way to go??

Peppers to the left

peaches to the right

looks like peaches won.

Woops - a casualty

The trees are tagged with yellow or white ribbon so you know where to pick.

I saw this kind in the market the other day.

I think it's called a disc peach (or maybe I'm just making that up). Anyone know the real name?

I left them for a while to go get some yellow squash.

After we finished picking, we headed off to the Little Village - a section on the farm with all little types of houses - perfect playhouses for the kids.

We were smart enough to save this part for last. Otherwise we would have been there all day.

There was a church,

a barn,

firehouse, ice cream shop, school house, and a bunch of others I can't remember - probably about 10 in all.

One of the houses had a cluster of sunflowers, but I was drawn to this one.

bzzzzzzzzzzzzz

My sister loves sunflowers. She was happy.

Well all that playing just knocked those kids out.

Time for a lollipop break!

We ended up leaving with about $12 worth of produce and a bunch of worn out kids. All in all, a good day.

I'm haunted by peppers though. We'll be eating peppers all week.

First up - sausage & peppers recipe. Stay tuned!