The girls love food, especially fruits and vegetables. They love to go shopping at the grocery store and farmer’s market for fresh produce and they love learning where their food comes from. The girls started growing tomato and strawberry plants with the help of Gigi and have been really good at taking care of their plants, watering them when needed and keeping Sienna from pulling out the roots.
Bailey’s already enjoyed a few strawberries from her plant and Sienna has developed a bit of a strawberry obsession so we decided to take the girls to one of the You Pick farms near us. It was a little stormy but since we were already up watching the Royal Wedding we decided to brave the rain and headed to our favorite farm.
We’re fortunate to live by several You Pick farms that have an assortment of fruits available to pick during the season. For strawberries, our top 3 favorites are:
- Gieringer’s Orchard – This is our personal favorite because it is the closest to our home, it’s quick and easy to get in and out and there are a lot of extra activities for the kiddos. They also accept credit/debit so if you’re littles pick way too many berries, you aren’t scrambling for cash at the end.
- Wohletz Farm– This farm is out in Lawrence and run by a sweet family. There are fun activities for the kids but this is a cash/check only farm.
- Benny’s Berries– This is one of the bigger You Pick farms. We have had a lot of friends that have visited and enjoyed this farm but we personally have not visited this farm yet.
We went to Gieringer’s since the weather was a little iffy and it turned out to be a perfect choice because it was a little muddy but it was nice and cool for berry picking.
Bailey hit the ground running as she was an old pro at berry picking. Sienna was a little more reserved at first but she hit her stride as soon that first berry hit her lips. It’s a good thing they don’t weigh the kids before and after because we would have probably doubled our total.
Sienna may have walked away three pounds heavier looking as if she finished a meal with Hannibal Lector, but she had a lot of fun. We checked out and then headed over to the play area for some strawberry donuts and to run out some strawberry energy. Bailey even gave a surprise performance at the top of one of the hay bales for all the little boys running around.
You Pick Farm Tips
Before heading out to one your local farms we have a few tips we’ve learned along the way:
Tip #1: All three farms have excellent social media pages that we recommend visiting before heading out to the farms. They will let you know the status of the fields and berries in case of inclement weather and an influx of people. Once the berries are picked out for the day, they will shut the farms down so you definitely want to check the status before you go.
Tip #2: Bring rain boots and wear old clothes. It can get muddy and strawberries are super juicy so you don’t want to dress your best and risk staining your favorite clothes – especially if your little ones only wear princess dresses, as is the case in our household.
Tip #3: Wear bug spray! We thought since it was a little colder we wouldn’t need it but poor little Sienna got several bites that look a little more like oak mite bites, so don’t chance it.
The girls are already talking about going back so we may be taking Gigi and Pop Pop with us next time. For now, I’m working on some recipes to use up our strawberry bounty. We’ll be sharing a few of those soon!
