Where to Pick Your Own Fruits and Veges

Have you ever gone to a farm and picked your own fruits and veges? Well, if you haven’t, you really should give it a try. There’s just something to be said about getting produce directly from the source.

If you’re interested in picking your own produce, check out http://www.pickyourown.org/. The website lists farms (and farmers markets) in the USA and other countries along with crop calendars so that you can plan your trip. They also have an abundance of resources on finding canning equipment and supplies, making jam, preserving, etc. I looked up my own county and it turns out that in a 20-30 minute drive, I can pick blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, muscadines, apples, pears, pumpkins, scuppernongs (not even sure what these are – will have to google this), tomatoes, figs, squash, tomatoes, corn, potatoes, muscadines and more and we’re not even in a rural area!

Be patient with the site, it takes a while to load, but it’s worth it if you’re serious about finding local places to pick fresh fruits and veges.

I took my sons to the strawberry patch twice last year. We picked strawberries and made strawberry jam and strawberry ice cream. We were so hooked on home made jam that I then went on to make peach jam and pear preserves. We also went to a pumpkin patch, at which point I made pumpkin pies from scratch (I guess I was feeling particularly domesticated last year). I wanted to pick apples too, but by the time I figured out where we could go to pick them, the season was already over. With Pick Your Own, I’m not going to miss the apple-picking season this year. What’s funny to me though is that we live in the Peach State, and we don’t have a peach orchard in our county! Go figure…

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