E...I...E...I...O

"and on that farm they had a blast...e...i..e...i...o!"

When I first told the boys last Thursday that we were going to a farm, they were less than thrilled. I told them that there would be farm animals and that we got to pick our own fruit and vegetables and that it would be awesome! but all my talk did little to enthuse them.


Then we got to the farm and all that changed.

My friend Jenn had told me about Underwood Family Farms before and I had seen pictures of her daughter picking strawberries there. It looked and sounded like so much fun, when Jenn invited us to tag along last week I wasn't about to refuse. It didn't disappoint.


We bought bags of carrots for $1 to feed the animals. The kids could put the carrots into these tubes that shot the food down to the animals. Less risk of tiny fingers being mistaken for the carrots I guess.


The Monkey chased this poor peacock around for a while. Since this was a family farm for children, I figure the peacock was use to it. Notice the big sign about safety. I think the Underwoods are a little paranoid. I guess I would be too if I was running a business filled with farm animals and small children.

After a quick climb to the top of a haystack...


...it was time to head out to the fields to pick some fresh fruit and veggies.


The Cheese was all business when it came to picking strawberries. He had his own plastic basket that he completely filled. The Monkey picked a few...but he ate them all before getting them into his basket.


Next were the raspberries (we ate as many as we picked) followed by zucchini, cucumbers, yellow squash, green leaf lettuce, Romain lettuce, and finally...

...zinnias.

After a picnic lunch and playing on the farm's playground, we headed home to clean our treasures.

I showed the Cheese this strawberry that he had picked. Isn't it the most perfect little strawberry you've ever seen? Who knew that I could be so giddy over freshly picked fruit?

This was the head of Romain lettuce that I yanked out of the ground. We had it for dinner and it was fresh and yummy. (The Golfer thought I had lost my mind when he saw that I was taking pictures of lettuce in the sink.)

I've had many great experiences since moving to California...regular trips to Disneyland, the beach, Coronado Island, Legoland, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Carmel, etc...etc...but this little day trip over to Moorpark to visit Underwood Family Farms ranks right at the top.