Matt and I have been insanely preoccupied lately. Between a big project in my day job, revamping the site, and regular life it felt like it’d been weeks since we’d had a great weekend with nothing but family time. So Matt and I declared Saturday a family day and we took to the road.
Normally we like to visit Great Country Farms for our U-Pick, but there was a big festival this weekend (involving cupcake eating contests) so we decided to steer clear and headed to Larriland Farm in Maryland instead. We’ve always enjoyed our visits to Larriland and the quality of produce we take away is superb. This weekend was fantastic picking: peaches, apples, blackberries and potatoes were all on our list but they also had tomatoes, beans, herbs, flowers and more!
We asked a stranger to take our photo the moment we arrived, because you get dirty quickly picking your own fruits and veggies. Plus, we wanted to show off all of our Peach Pickin’ Paleo Paraphernalia to you all! We love that we get questions about Paleo when we wear them. Look how awesome NomNom’s shirts are! And the boys adore their CaveGirlCafe shirts too… (we hope ours will come out in a week or so, so excited to wear our own Paleo gear!)
We started with potatoes. Since they’re not at all in the shade, we knew the earlier we did our digging the cooler the temperatures. Because the longer we’re out in the direct sun, the greater our chances of a mass-attack exhausted and dehydrated kid whining fest. That in mind, Finian led the way to the potatoes first and foremost…
We don’t usually eat potatoes. They’re a bit controversial in the Paleo community (there’s nothing particularly terrible about them, but neither is there much to recommend them), but we tend to avoid them. When we do eat them, we remove the skin and consider them a treat. The boys, not aware of any of this, truly love to pick potatoes. They like to get dirty finding the perfect ones (since the tractor often slices them when pulling the taters to the surface) and discuss the variety of ways in which we should eat them (the babies go in stew, the big ones we can make fries out of, etc.).
Wes had a great time helping to pick; sometimes he had to discuss with Cole (in Wessie speak) about what the heck we were doing and how in the world he was supposed to tell the difference between what was edible and what was rocks.
Oh wait… we didn’t escape the “I’m hot” pouty fest after all.
In the 30 seconds he had to wait from the time declaring “I’m hot” to the rest of us wrapping up, Finn found some shade. Then we all walked over to get our 12lbs of peaches and 20lbs of apples, where the vines and orchard trees offered a bit more protection from the rising sun and accompanying temperatures.
Oh, and don’t tell Larriland but I also forgot about the pound or so of blackberries that ended up in all of our bellies. There is genuinely nothing better than vine-ripe, fresh fruit warm and oozing from the summer sun. It’s worth zombie hands, trust me.
We came home with 20 lbs of apples (they’ll last for a few batches of dehydration), 20 lbs of potatoes (they’ll last us several months in our pantry), 10 or so pounds of peaches (we’ll eat half and freeze the others) and a handful of blackberries that didn’t quite make it all the way home (as anyone who spoke with me on the phone for the car ride home could tell you, Wesley successfully shrieked his way into consuming them all – sorry Bill & Hayley!).
Such an awesome day with my boys! This week is Cole’s 6th birthday, and in just a few more he’ll start the 1st grade. This summer has flown by, but I’m happy to have so many wonderful memories to show for it.
