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Pick-Your-Own Farms


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This is a very large farm located off of 28W and Rt. 107. I go here several times a year. I start with the strawberries in the late spring/early summer. I have also picked raspberries, tomatoes, thornless blackberries, apples and peaches. When you can find them, they have an excellent peach called Sugar Giant. It is very juicy and sweet right off the tree. Wow. There prices are very reasonable especially for the blackberries. I like pick your own because I know exactly the freshness and ripeness of the produce.

For other pick your own options, try this website: http://pickyourown.org

BTW: Does anyone know of any local organic pick your own farms?

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Holy crap, what a money making machine the Butler's Orchard Annual Pumpkin Festival is. $11 per person (kids under 2 free)...thousands of kids, and a couple parents too, running around on a beautiful Saturday morning. The country market store was slammed too. Good baked goods (cider donuts, pumpkin roll, ginger bread). Yet the small pie pumpkins we bought to make pumpkin soup were from Ohio...

Either way, a good Saturday out in the country (and only 10 minutes from the I-270 sprawl!)

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That's too bad. I think Homestead and Rock Hill are better choices, if you're looking for a more relaxed and authentic experience. Even though Butler's is the most convenient PYO for me, I always prefer to go elsewhere. Butler's is just too commercial and impersonal for me, especially during strawberry/apple/pumpkin seasons.

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Holy crap, what a money making machine the Butler's Orchard Annual Pumpkin Festival is. $11 per person (kids under 2 free)...thousands of kids, and a couple parents too, running around on a beautiful Saturday morning. The country market store was slammed too. Good baked goods (cider donuts, pumpkin roll, ginger bread). Yet the small pie pumpkins we bought to make pumpkin soup were from Ohio...

Either way, a good Saturday out in the country (and only 10 minutes from the I-270 sprawl!)

You should have seen Baugher's on Sunday!

A serene drive through the countryside (following a rocking good lunch at Family Meal), wondering if, at 4 PM, we'd be the only people in a barren apple orchard.

We turn the corner, and BOOM! Disneyland! Parking-lot attendants, a line to purchase the $1 tractor-haul ticket out to the farm (with one of the numerous tractor drivers dressed in a chicken outfit), a second line to wait either for the pumpkin-tractor or the apple-tractor, a dedicated salesperson out at the orchard itself, pitching the large bags ("a much better value at only $20"), face-painting, a pumpkin-themed moon-bounce, an apple slushy station, an apple beignet station, a huge market. It was an incredibly polished operation. It was literally laughable - we burst out laughing when we pulled into the parking lot. The only people in a barren apple orchard. I don't tink so. :rolleyes:

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Went to Larriland Farm, NE of Damascus (about 1 hour from NW DC) this past weekend and had a really nice time. Apple picking and pumpkin picking. Sounds like smaller, a bit less commercial/slick operation than some of these other ones. Still had literally hills and hills of pumpkins to pick from and good size groves of apple trees. We went in the morning and it was crowded but not unbearable. When we left in mid-afternoon, there was a line of cars trying to get in and out of main parking lot. My favorite time to come though is for peach and blackberry picking.

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Not a fan of the day pass admission fee, but we ended up going to Butler's yesterday anyway because Larriland's strawberry picking was merely scattered according to their mailing list.  The strawberries at Butler's were better than expected, and our four year-old had a blast on the playground and going down the big slide, so between that, the gas/time saved not making the longer drive to Larriland, and getting to hit up Wegman's on the way out, we decided the $3/person was worthwhile.

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Went to Heartland Orchard in Markham Virginia yesterday for pick your own tart cherries. The orchard was full of ripe and almost ripe cherries. No need for a ladder yesterday -- if you go later this week, you may want to bring a stepstool or ladder. Harvest may last through next weekend. No admission fee & cherries are $2 per pound.

There are a couple of farms and orchards that are run by the same family: Hartland Orchards, Hartland Farm & Orchards, and Green Truck Farm. I have had good experiences at all of their locations.

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