Days on the Farm

Summer is wonderful for many reasons. The air grows warmer, the days grow longer, and the earth grows greener. In addition, the fields and gardens yield their abundance to the willing laborer. As a result, I am very fond of the summer and all of its beauty. One of my favorite summertime activities is our annual berry picking trips. Someday I want the berry and fruit picking to be done in our own backyard, just as our vegetable picking is, but for now we'll settle for visiting the local growers instead. Here are a few shots our our kiddos and the Ercanbrack children busy with their strawberry buckets.







The setting on the FireFly Fruit Farm is beautiful indeed, and their strawberries and raspberries are well worth the drive across town. Here are a few shots of our own garden too. This year we grew potatoes, lettuce, peas, onions, peppers, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, cucumbers and our lovely "three sisters" crops corn, beans, and pumpkins. (You can read more about this on our homeschooling blog.) Nick also planted some sunflowers--just for the fun of it. They were supposed to be a dwarf variety, but they ended up dwarfing the whole garden. They did look really lovely though--and Nick was pretty proud of the wonderful sunflower seeds he made from them. We'll be set on sunflower seeds for the rest of our life!!





In addition to visiting the local fruit farms, one of my favorite Rochester traditions has become the annual breakfast on the farm that is put on in conjunction with Rochestfest each June. It is also a bit of a drive, but once you arrive they tractor you onto the farm,



and serve up a hearty farm breakfast.





Then the kids can look at and pet all of the farm animals including the cows,





piggies,







sheep,





and of course, the big animals--aka tractors.



They offer horse pulled carriage tours of the farm while you're there too. It's an excellent way to spend a summer morning. If I'm lucky, we'll be able to host our own breakfast on the farm someday soon as well.