Down on the Farm

As we were winding down our stay in Bakersfield, we thought we should take advantage of being in the middle of a huge and diverse agricultural area. When we drove into Bakersfield, we saw a sign for a family farm where you could pick the fruit yourself. It was a bright sunny day and we headed out California highway 58 to Murray Farms to get a close up look at how some of these foods come to our table.

They were pretty well set up for kids and fixed us up with some fruit boxes, plastic pales and a wagon to pull the load. We were directed to the areas where things were in season. There was a large area of "stone fruit" (peaches, plums, apricots and nectarines) that had some ripe fruit and different areas with blueberries and blackberries said to be ready.

The boys dove right in. Starting with the plum trees, they craned their necks looking for the right color and stretched on tiptoes to squeeze and feel for the right firmness. Of course, we had to taste one to see if it was as good as we thought. We repeated this process for apricots and then for nectarines. By the time we got to the peaches, we were getting hot and a little tired.

With a new found respect for effort it takes to grow and pick the tree fruits that we enjoy, we headed over to the blueberry bushes.

Many long rows of bushes were loaded with blueberries. The professional pickers were working along some of these rows and so we knew these were truly ready for the table. We talked about blueberry pancakes, maybe muffins or scones and we could even imagine a handful of these tossed on our cereal in the morning.

We looked along the rows of blackberries as well, but we could not fined any that we thought were ripe enough. Besides, blackberry bushes have lots of stickers and thorns! Looking at our boxes and buckets we could see that we were getting close to the limit of room in our camper refrigerator anyway. So as I pulled the wagon back to the market to get ready to check out, Linda took the boys over to look over some of the other attractions.

They had some things to climb on and a maze in the tall asparagus. These were a little young for the boys. There was also a petting zoo that did keep their attention for a little while while I checked out. The store had lots of other fruits and vegetables, but I was able to resist buying any more then we had except for strawberries. Linda and Cory both really like them and they had some nice big ones. This was a good experience for our family and offered lots of teachable moments for the boys and full crispers in the fridge for the trip to the next campground.