U-Pick: Pick your own farms - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Cynthetiq · 08-28-2008, 09:12 PM

Quote:

View: Ripe time for Southern California's pick-your-own farms
Source: LATimes
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Ripe time for Southern California's pick-your-own farms
Ripe time for Southern California's pick-your-own farms
Grab your kids and some baskets and head out to the nearest U-pick farm for the freshest fruits and vegetables.
By Amy Scattergood
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

August 27, 2008

ON A recent Sunday, a friend and I watched as our kids pulled a wooden wagon through a Ventura County field, pausing to gather black-eyed peas and sun-ripened heirloom tomatoes. They ran down rows of raspberry bushes, filling their hats with the ripe fruit. The air rustled the leaves of a row of peach trees; bees hummed on the periphery. Two hours later, the contents of our wagon (weighed out and paid for at the market stand) held enough produce for dinner, for dinners all week. The kids, faces browned by dirt and sunlight, were eating tomatoes as if they were apples; they didn't want to leave.

If this sounds like your idea of fun, heading out to a U-pick (also called pick-your-own) farm might just be the perfect way to spend a weekend morning. And a fantastic way to get some of the freshest and tastiest produce you're likely to find.

There are U-pick farms throughout Southern California -- working farms like this one in Ventura County, apple orchards halfway to Palm Springs, unlikely Irvine-area watermelon fields -- and these transitional weeks, as summer leans into fall, are the perfect time to explore them.

Right now you'll find a last burst of raspberries, ripe tomatoes and pears and the season's first fragrant apples. In another month, pumpkins will be ready. So gather your boxes, find your sun hats and walking shoes, and head out to the farm.

Just 30 miles northeast of Encino in Ventura County, Underwood Family Farms, a familiar name from L.A.-area farmers markets, operates two U-pick farms. The main location, in Moorpark, is a 160-acre working farm with plenty of U-pick fields, a large produce stand (you needn't pick your own), a petting zoo for kids and a just-planted corn maze.

Visitors can pick up a wooden cart, as we did, to pull down the dirt paths between rows of peas, squat peppers, and lettuces like emerald bouquets. Signs indicate the names of the plants, price per pound and whether they're ready for picking.

Craig Underwood, who owns or leases the land at the Moorpark farm and a second 10-acre farm in nearby Somis, says he's seen his U-pick farms, as well as those of his colleagues in the business, increase in popularity recently.

"I think it's picked up in the last couple years; we're seeing more people come out. People are finding it more important to buy local and eat fresh."

Underwood grows for a combination of U-pick, farmers markets (he goes to 12), and the produce stands he runs at each farm. School tours during the week and festivals each October have helped turn the U-pick into a profitable operation.

Northeast of Los Angeles, in the high desert on the other side of the San Gabriel Mountains, is a region that a century ago was so filled with pear trees that the main drag is called Pearblossom Highway. Here, the U-pick farms are more far-flung and windblown, less suited to school tours than to pilgrimage.

"We get cold in the winter, the nighttime temperatures drop into the 20s, sometimes lower; it's the right climate for pears," according to Nancy Yingst, who says that in recent years farmers have replaced many of the pear trees that fell prey to disease and drought, with faster-growing peach trees.

The Yingst family has farmed in the Antelope Valley on land right off Pearblossom Highway for 23 years. Their fruit trees have been U-pick for "almost the whole time," Yingst says. "Years ago people used to come and pick large volumes for canning."

These days, with rising gas prices, Yingst says that "folks are coming less frequently, but they're picking more."

Yingst Ranch is primarily a U-pick operation, though it sells picked fruit (at a slightly higher price per pound than the U-pick) and the Yingsts sell at four farmers markets.

By Labor Day, the farm has gone through its apricot, plum and most of its peach season (Rio Osa Gems are still on the trees), but Bartlett pears and Red and Golden Delicious apples are just hitting their stride.

With her two dogs gamboling around her on the slightly overgrown paths between the rows of trees, Yingst leads a couple of women (they know the routine and have loaded one of the farm's small wooden wagons with baskets they've brought) to the trees with the ripest fruit. Low branches on those trees are tagged with plastic ribbons.

One of the visitors, Liliana Tortell, who has been coming to this farm for close to a decade, says she "can't buy the ones in the market," because she thinks they're tasteless. As she waited for Yingst to weigh the peaches she'd selected, Tortell said she planned to make a pie with some of the fruit, and to simply cook down the rest with butter and sugar.

Further down Pearblossom Highway, past lonely Joshua trees and handmade signs for honey and jerky and sail-plane rides, down a mile-long, coyote-tracked dirt road, is Brian Ranch Airport, a U-pick farm so vast and horizontal that it looks more like an airstrip than an orchard. In fact, it's both.

Six hundred fruit trees fill five of Jack Brian and Felice Apodaca's 40 acres. As you walk through the trees -- Shinko and Kikusi Asian pears, Flavortop nectarines, Braeburn and Red Fuji and Royal Gala apples, Rosi-Red and Bronze Beauty pears -- you can see the hangar where Brian, a former aerospace engineer, keeps his Rans S-12 and Piper Arrow planes. Nearby, a tiny cold-storage hut houses the picked fruit that the couple will sell at the South Pasadena farmers market and take to the Antelope Valley Fair.

Apodaca, who is from Los Angeles, says her British husband always wanted to own an airport. The land they bought in 1978 with that in mind was zoned for agriculture, so they decided to plant fruit trees.

Tasty destinations

BUSINESS IS good lately, Apodaca says, thanks to the ease of "getting the word out" on the Internet. Families come up from the city, and the ranch also gets business from recreational pilots, who fly in for an afternoon of fruit picking.

"They're always looking for a destination as an excuse," Apodaca says. "You've heard of the $200 hamburger? We're the $50 peach." (The farm charges 95 cents a pound for peaches and all its other fruit.)

Another center of U-pick activity is in San Bernardino County, where the apple ranches of Oak Glen -- an area of rolling foothills east of Yucaipa, cool enough for winter snows and prime apple growing -- are like a bucolic oasis after a string of scrubby outposts. Tiny ski rental shacks and dry-docked boats (Lake Arrowhead is only about 40 miles north) yield to green hills and orchards heavy with Honeycrisps and Empires, Pink Ladys and Arkansas Blacks.

Oak Glen is as much an apple theme park as a collection of farms and ranches. Gift shops, restaurants, conference centers and art galleries line the main drag of Oak Glen Road. Picking apples here has been elevated to performance art.

At Riley’s Apple Farm (many of the businesses up here are run by the Riley family, who originally brought the U-pick idea to Oak Glen), there are blackberries and raspberries for picking in late summer. Then pears and, after Labor Day, the official start of apple season up here, U-pick apples.

After a meandering drive up Oak Glen Road, you park in a dirt-and-grass lot near the orchards. But the Rileys who run this farm do more than hand you a bucket: The gift shop is operated by women in pioneer garb; there are archery and tomahawk- and knife-throwing demonstrations.

Down the road, Riley's at Los Rios Rancho (run by Devon and Shelli Riley, a different branch of the extended Riley clan) also starts off its U-pick schedule with raspberries before segueing into apples, then pumpkins, then chestnuts in late fall.

After a morning spent among the orchards, take a bag of freshly picked Galas -- or a 5-pound apple pie from the farm's bakery -- and explore the trails of the Wildlands Conservancy, which has its headquarters at Los Rios Rancho.

The Conservancy owns the orchards and leases the land to the Rileys at Los Rios; depending on the seasons, the trail you walk might pass through the very orchard where you picked your apples.

Los Rios Rancho grows 28 varieties of apples, including Gravensteins, Rome Beauties, Starkey Delicious and the gorgeous Arkansas Blacks -- stunning crisp, hard-textured apples that look more like orbs carved out of dark mahogany than fruit.

All the apple varieties are available for picking, though orchards will mature and be ready at different times.

All in the family

DOWN THE hill from the Riley farms at the end of a little side road called Raspberry Lane is the smaller Snow-Line Orchard. The Hudson family, which owns and operates the farm, doesn't offer U-pick apples; instead, there are raspberries (both red and golden) to pick in the field above the farm's shop. In the shop you can buy cider made on the premises and some of the 34 varieties of apples the Hudsons grow in nearby Cherry Valley. And starting Labor Day, Snow-Line makes cider doughnuts seven days a week.

"We've got people who've been coming here for generations; [the farm] is 110 years old," Linda Hudson says.

Hudson says that visitors come from San Diego, Ventura County and Los Angeles, even from Las Vegas. "People like U-pick because it's an activity for the family, or it's a tradition. [The way] I look at it," says Hudson as she pauses to direct a group of local kids on a scavenger hunt near the raspberry bushes, "it's work."

Work, of course, is a relative concept. Picking Gravensteins or Galas from a low-hung branch, pausing amid the long grass and sage to bite into a crisp Braeburn or a Bartlett pear, then filling a basket with fruit that you've gathered yourself may not seem like work at all.

Watching the kids run down the fields at Underwood farm last Sunday, calling out to see who could find the biggest eggplant, it seemed a lot more like play.

"No sweeter a taste that you could find
Than fruit hanging ripe upon the vine"
- Garbage

Skogafoss and I go to pick your own farms any time we can. So far we've picked apples (macoun, rome, stayman winesap, granny smith, red delicious, green delicious), peaches, blueberries, strawberries, and bell peppers. When I was a kid, we'd drive to Cherry Valley for a day of cherry picking but not much other kind of you pick farms.

We just picked peaches this past weekend. Blueberries in Maine the weekend before. The apples are from a couple seasons ago, looking forward to this years apple crop.

Ever been to a pick your own farm? Ever pick your own vegetables right off the bush/tree/vine? Do you take your own kids?

Willravel · 08-28-2008, 09:32 PM

If you two kids have a balcony, you should utilize your green thumbs and try growing a small, organic garden. Picking your own fruit is fun, but eating your own hard work is even more satisfying.

BTW, this is an interesting solution to what a conservative friend of mine calls "the illegal picker problem".

Cynthetiq · 08-28-2008, 09:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Willravel

If you two kids have a balcony, you should utilize your green thumbs and try growing a small, organic garden. Picking your own fruit is fun, but eating your own hard work is even more satisfying.

nope, no balcony, and no interest in growing my own. I've had a space of land before and found that's not what my interest is. I prefer let farmers do what farmers do best.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Willravel

BTW, this is an interesting solution to what a conservative friend of mine calls "the illegal picker problem".

Actually, it's not, the fruit will rot on the vine/ground before it gets picked and transported. It needs to be done in a timely and regular fashion. You can't rely on part timers to come on the weekends with their kids.

Instead of the editorial, why not participate in the OP?

highthief · 08-29-2008, 02:36 AM

We tried it for the first time earlier this year, picking berries with our daughter who is 3. She loved it and the fruit we picked was much niced than that in the supermarket.

We've used the local farmer's market for a while but this was even better.

stevie667 · 08-29-2008, 03:10 AM

They used to do alot of this type of thing near me (you could quite happily fill up a bucket of strawberries and have a red mouth for a week), but a combination of health and safety (do you have a hazard report for this small bush, someone might trip over it...) and people just munching them off the plant (yes, just the one punnet please, ignore the fact i'm covered head to toe in fruit juice) killed that.

Grancey · 08-29-2008, 07:54 AM

My father had a large vegetable garden when I was a child so I did quite a bit of harvesting. This lasted for a few years until he got tired of it. Picking your own fruits/vegetables is not uncommon around here. We have a pecan tree and muscadine vines in the back, we know where to find blackberries to pick, friends have orchards of persimmons and pears, and you can pick strawberries and blueberries near here. So, I've done a little bit of all of it. Some summers I still grow tomatoes. I have a friend who grows cotton, and trying to pick cotton by hand is an experience.

Poppinjay · 08-29-2008, 08:49 AM

As a toddler in Cali, I picked walnuts and grapes.

As an adult in NC, I picked more strawberries than we needed or will ever need. They were luscious. Our secretary brings in organic veggies from her farm. I didn't pick them, but they are so much better than the waxed stuff at most stores.

snowy · 08-29-2008, 08:56 AM

We don't really need to go to a U-Pick to pick our own--a lot of our friends and family have vegetable gardens and fruit trees, and we are invited to pick there. My SO's mom unloads lots of excess produce on to us--zucchini, summer squash, beans, and cucumbers, mostly. Last weekend we picked several bushels of apples from my SO's grandparents' tree. I think we would consider doing it if we had more freezer room, especially in the case of strawberries and blueberries (yum, strawberry freezer jam).

Fotzlid · 08-29-2008, 09:40 AM

We have our own vegtable garden out back so we are set for that.
We do go apple picking every fall up in New Hampshire. Usually bring home more than we could possibly eat and give them to friends/family. The per pound cost is higher than going to the supermarket but its a nice day trip for us.

Ayashe · 08-29-2008, 01:09 PM

i have the most wonderful memories from childhood going to the berry patch and picking fresh strawberries. It can be a lot of fun. You don't always have room to grow everything on your own property, and if you don't know someone who has overflow it isn't a bad way to go.

BadNick · 08-29-2008, 03:08 PM

We like doing it since it's a fun day and we end up with tasty stuff. So I take my two boys to pick apples each year at a large orchard near West Chester PA and in most years we also go for various berries in NJ and west of Philly; years ago when my daughter was younger and still living with me we also had fun doing this every year. While we always take several varieties of apples home, I let the kids pick those while I just meander around the orchard eating...their policy is you can eat all you want for free but pay for what you bring out...makes me wish I lived next to the orchard. When I was a boy, my grandma lived across the road from a decent sized farm and since we spent our summers there, I often picked corn, tomatoes, strawberries, and various veggies.

eribrav · 08-29-2008, 04:01 PM

BadNick, we actually DO live just about next door to the orchard (in this case, a blueberry patch). We've been back 5 or 6 times so far this year.
This has been an outstanding year for blueberries in upstate NY. It's one of the highest quality crops I can remember, and plenty of 'em. We have picked well over 30 pounds so far, at least 15 of which are safe in the freezer for us to use over the coming year. Forunately the price is right too, because blueberries were crazy expensive in the store this year.
There used to be a strawberry patch down the hill too but "progress" has led to its demise.

Charlatan · 08-29-2008, 04:12 PM

I was just waxing nostalgic about pick your own farms that other day. They don't really have farms here and the closest thing they do have is Durian plantations in Malaysia. There you don't really pick the durians (they are high up in the trees) so much as have someone get them for you.

Fruit freshly picked is so much sweeter than anything you can buy in the stores. This is especially true here where everything is imported, sometimes from very great distances. I have been lamenting that fresh strawberries, raspberries and blueberries are both very costly and never as tasty as they are at home. This is true of nearly all produce on sale here.

Toronto has a number of pick your own places (apples, strawberries, pumpkins, Christmas trees, etc.) all within a reasonable driving distance.

Ayashe · 08-29-2008, 04:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlatan

I was just waxing nostalgic about pick your own farms that other day. They don't really have farms here and the closest thing they do have is Durian plantations in Malaysia. There you don't really pick the durians (they are high up in the trees) so much as have someone get them for you.

Fruit freshly picked is so much sweeter than anything you can buy in the stores. This is especially true here where everything is imported, sometimes from very great distances. I have been lamenting that fresh strawberries, raspberries and blueberries are both very costly and never as tasty as they are at home. This is true of nearly all produce on sale here.

Toronto has a number of pick your own places (apples, strawberries, pumpkins, Christmas trees, etc.) all within a reasonable driving distance.

Aren't Durians that fruit known for smelling horribly? I know my significant other has been very interested in trying those. Curious what your impression of them happens to be.

Charlatan · 08-29-2008, 05:12 PM

Durians are the King of Fruits!

I journaled about my eating Durian a while back, but we lost the journals. Durians most certainly stink but you can get used to the smell. Many here think the smell is pleasant. Eating Durian is another thing. My first taste, it was like a caramelized custard... moments later it was one of the most horrifying tastes. Through the better part of one seed pod, my taste buds were at war. In the end, it started to feel like I had a big ball of nastiness in my stomach. I couldn't eat any more.

The interesting thing that many don't tell you about eating Durian is that you will have Durian burps for quite sometime after. Let me tell you, the burps are worse than eating the flesh.

We had a top NYC chef in townlast weekend (most would know who he is) and we fed him some Durian. He likened it to stinky French cheese. I think he has a point. He too commented on the burps and how nasty they were.

mardigras · 08-29-2008, 05:13 PM

I grew up in Idaho and we always had a garden...trust me, there is nothing better than having your own home gown produce...that being said, if you can't or don't wish to go to that much effort because it is a lot of effort, u-pick farms are the next best thing.....I'm all for them........

ASU2003 · 08-29-2008, 05:19 PM

I've picked blueberries plenty of times growing up. It's been a while though. We would pick enough to last us throughout the winter, and I would eat enough while picking to not need lunch or dinner that day. It saved a lot of money.

Ayashe · 09-01-2008, 12:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlatan

Durians are the King of Fruits!

I journaled about my eating Durian a while back, but we lost the journals. Durians most certainly stink but you can get used to the smell. Many here think the smell is pleasant. Eating Durian is another thing. My first taste, it was like a caramelized custard... moments later it was one of the most horrifying tastes. Through the better part of one seed pod, my taste buds were at war. In the end, it started to feel like I had a big ball of nastiness in my stomach. I couldn't eat any more.

The interesting thing that many don't tell you about eating Durian is that you will have Durian burps for quite sometime after. Let me tell you, the burps are worse than eating the flesh.

We had a top NYC chef in townlast weekend (most would know who he is) and we fed him some Durian. He likened it to stinky French cheese. I think he has a point. He too commented on the burps and how nasty they were.

I almost forgot about this thread. Thank you for your post, I will make sure that Cernunnos takes a look at it. From what I gather, you don't much care for it though. He is the adventurous one, not sure how I feel about giving it a go.

08-29-2008, 02:36 AM	#4 (permalink)
highthief Junkie Location: Ontario, Canada	We tried it for the first time earlier this year, picking berries with our daughter who is 3. She loved it and the fruit we picked was much niced than that in the supermarket. We've used the local farmer's market for a while but this was even better. __________________ Si vis pacem parabellum.

08-29-2008, 03:10 AM	#5 (permalink)
stevie667 Too Awesome for Aardvarks Location: Angloland	They used to do alot of this type of thing near me (you could quite happily fill up a bucket of strawberries and have a red mouth for a week), but a combination of health and safety (do you have a hazard report for this small bush, someone might trip over it...) and people just munching them off the plant (yes, just the one punnet please, ignore the fact i'm covered head to toe in fruit juice) killed that. __________________ Office hours have changed. Please call during office hours for more information.

08-29-2008, 07:54 AM	#6 (permalink)
Grancey Life's short, gotta hurry... Location: land of pit vipers	My father had a large vegetable garden when I was a child so I did quite a bit of harvesting. This lasted for a few years until he got tired of it. Picking your own fruits/vegetables is not uncommon around here. We have a pecan tree and muscadine vines in the back, we know where to find blackberries to pick, friends have orchards of persimmons and pears, and you can pick strawberries and blueberries near here. So, I've done a little bit of all of it. Some summers I still grow tomatoes. I have a friend who grows cotton, and trying to pick cotton by hand is an experience. __________________ Quiet, mild-mannered souls might just turn out to be roaring lions of two-fisted cool.

08-29-2008, 08:49 AM	#7 (permalink)
Poppinjay You had me at hello Location: DC/Coastal VA	As a toddler in Cali, I picked walnuts and grapes. As an adult in NC, I picked more strawberries than we needed or will ever need. They were luscious. Our secretary brings in organic veggies from her farm. I didn't pick them, but they are so much better than the waxed stuff at most stores. __________________ I think the Apocalypse is happening all around us. We go on eating desserts and watching TV. I know I do. I wish we were more capable of sustained passion and sustained resistance. We should be screaming and what we do is gossip. -Lydia Millet

08-29-2008, 08:56 AM	#8 (permalink)
snowy Kick Ass Kunoichi Location: Oregon	We don't really need to go to a U-Pick to pick our own--a lot of our friends and family have vegetable gardens and fruit trees, and we are invited to pick there. My SO's mom unloads lots of excess produce on to us--zucchini, summer squash, beans, and cucumbers, mostly. Last weekend we picked several bushels of apples from my SO's grandparents' tree. I think we would consider doing it if we had more freezer room, especially in the case of strawberries and blueberries (yum, strawberry freezer jam). __________________ If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

08-28-2008, 09:32 PM	#2 (permalink)
Willravel ... a sort of licensed troubleshooter.	If you two kids have a balcony, you should utilize your green thumbs and try growing a small, organic garden. Picking your own fruit is fun, but eating your own hard work is even more satisfying. BTW, this is an interesting solution to what a conservative friend of mine calls "the illegal picker problem".

08-29-2008, 09:40 AM	#9 (permalink)
Fotzlid Junkie Location: Greater Boston area	We have our own vegtable garden out back so we are set for that. We do go apple picking every fall up in New Hampshire. Usually bring home more than we could possibly eat and give them to friends/family. The per pound cost is higher than going to the supermarket but its a nice day trip for us.

08-29-2008, 01:09 PM	#10 (permalink)
Ayashe Psycho	i have the most wonderful memories from childhood going to the berry patch and picking fresh strawberries. It can be a lot of fun. You don't always have room to grow everything on your own property, and if you don't know someone who has overflow it isn't a bad way to go.

08-29-2008, 03:08 PM	#11 (permalink)
BadNick Riding the Ocean Spray Location: S.E. PA in U Sofa	We like doing it since it's a fun day and we end up with tasty stuff. So I take my two boys to pick apples each year at a large orchard near West Chester PA and in most years we also go for various berries in NJ and west of Philly; years ago when my daughter was younger and still living with me we also had fun doing this every year. While we always take several varieties of apples home, I let the kids pick those while I just meander around the orchard eating...their policy is you can eat all you want for free but pay for what you bring out...makes me wish I lived next to the orchard. When I was a boy, my grandma lived across the road from a decent sized farm and since we spent our summers there, I often picked corn, tomatoes, strawberries, and various veggies.

08-29-2008, 04:01 PM	#12 (permalink)
eribrav Junkie Location: upstate NY	BadNick, we actually DO live just about next door to the orchard (in this case, a blueberry patch). We've been back 5 or 6 times so far this year. This has been an outstanding year for blueberries in upstate NY. It's one of the highest quality crops I can remember, and plenty of 'em. We have picked well over 30 pounds so far, at least 15 of which are safe in the freezer for us to use over the coming year. Forunately the price is right too, because blueberries were crazy expensive in the store this year. There used to be a strawberry patch down the hill too but "progress" has led to its demise.

08-29-2008, 04:12 PM	#13 (permalink)
Charlatan Getting it. Super Moderator Location: Lion City	I was just waxing nostalgic about pick your own farms that other day. They don't really have farms here and the closest thing they do have is Durian plantations in Malaysia. There you don't really pick the durians (they are high up in the trees) so much as have someone get them for you. Fruit freshly picked is so much sweeter than anything you can buy in the stores. This is especially true here where everything is imported, sometimes from very great distances. I have been lamenting that fresh strawberries, raspberries and blueberries are both very costly and never as tasty as they are at home. This is true of nearly all produce on sale here. Toronto has a number of pick your own places (apples, strawberries, pumpkins, Christmas trees, etc.) all within a reasonable driving distance. __________________ "My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars." - Old Man Luedecke

08-29-2008, 05:12 PM	#15 (permalink)
Charlatan Getting it. Super Moderator Location: Lion City	Durians are the King of Fruits! I journaled about my eating Durian a while back, but we lost the journals. Durians most certainly stink but you can get used to the smell. Many here think the smell is pleasant. Eating Durian is another thing. My first taste, it was like a caramelized custard... moments later it was one of the most horrifying tastes. Through the better part of one seed pod, my taste buds were at war. In the end, it started to feel like I had a big ball of nastiness in my stomach. I couldn't eat any more. The interesting thing that many don't tell you about eating Durian is that you will have Durian burps for quite sometime after. Let me tell you, the burps are worse than eating the flesh. We had a top NYC chef in townlast weekend (most would know who he is) and we fed him some Durian. He likened it to stinky French cheese. I think he has a point. He too commented on the burps and how nasty they were. __________________ "My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars." - Old Man Luedecke

08-29-2008, 05:13 PM	#16 (permalink)
mardigras Insane Location: not where you live	I grew up in Idaho and we always had a garden...trust me, there is nothing better than having your own home gown produce...that being said, if you can't or don't wish to go to that much effort because it is a lot of effort, u-pick farms are the next best thing.....I'm all for them........ __________________ "Of all the things I've ever lost, I miss my mind the most."

08-29-2008, 05:19 PM	#17 (permalink)
ASU2003 immoral minority Location: Back in Ohio	I've picked blueberries plenty of times growing up. It's been a while though. We would pick enough to last us throughout the winter, and I would eat enough while picking to not need lunch or dinner that day. It saved a lot of money.