If you’re looking to get out of the house and enjoy some summer sunshine, consider taking your kiddos out to the farm to pick fresh fruits and vegetables. It can be both fun and educational and it’s a healthy choice to get yourselves up and moving instead of lounging around playing on electronics on a beautiful sunshiny day. Berry picking is a fun and rewarding experience, and learning how blueberries and other produce grows is great for the kids. Plus, if you’ve never tried fruits or vegetables directly from the vine, you’re totally missing out.
Nowadays, with inflation swiftly rising, high price tags can easily put a damper on what you choose to do with your limited free time. Lucky for all of us, Green Lakes State Park is an affordable way to get out there and enjoy nature on any budget. The entrance fee is per vehicle per day, so your whole family can visit for a nominal fee ($10/car at the time this article was written). The entrance fee includes parking, beach, and trail access. Visitors to the park can certainly spend the day at the park without spending more than the entrance fee. Of course, if you’re interested in some of the other activities discussed below there will be additional fees.
A Trip to the Farm
We visited Green Acre Farms – U Pick, located at 3460 Latta Rd in Rochester, NY for our weekend family berry picking adventure in mid-July. If you’d like to pick at this farm you’d better do so quickly because this year (2022) is their last season for U-Pick. Located adjacent to Green Acre Farm & Nursery, the long driveway leads to a gravel road and right on down to the farm itself. You’ll enjoy a slightly bumpy half-mile drive to the U-pick area with a small weigh station staffed by the farm employees. Upon arrival, you’ll be greeted by a cheery employee who will hand you a bag, bucket, and if you’re bringing your kids along, small plastic cartons for each one to collect their own produce. The “adult” bucket is quite the fashion statement with a rope attached to the metal handle to hang around your neck like a gawky necklace, but for good reason. The bucket settles in front of your chest allowing for a hands-free experience making it much simpler to pluck your blueberries and fill your bucket to your heart’s content. Once you’ve gathered your buckets you will be directed another 100-ish feet toward the makeshift parking area alongside the gravel road, and directly in front of the lush rows of blueberry bushes.
When to Visit
The best time of day to visit is in the morning before the crowds and before the sun rises to its peak, bathing the area in sweltering heat. You’ll still want to make sure to wear wide-brimmed hats to help protect yourself a little bit more from the bright sunshine, depending on the weather forecast when you go. Just don’t forget to apply some sunscreen at least 15 minutes before you plan to go out in the farm fields because your sunscreen will need to set to achieve its full effectiveness. It’s easy to lose track of time while you’re having fun and the last thing you or the kids want is a sunburn to ruin your fun-filled outing and following week. It may be a good idea to keep some aloe on hand if you do end up with a burn.
Once you step out of the car you can meander to the open walkways which cut through the many rows of succulent looking blueberry bushes. Further out beyond the blueberries, visitors can see hints of the orange apricots peeking through high up on their trees. As for us, we passed up the first few rows of blueberry bushes deciding that most people might immediately gravitate toward those and that most of the super awesome ripe-for-the-picking blueberries would already be taken. Plus, walking further is always beneficial for your health, so get those extra steps whenever you can. Every little bit of exercise counts, and the more you get out there, the better you’ll feel, and you’ll condition your body for longer walks over time.
Family fun at Green Acres U-Pick
Great, affordable family fun with a learning experience!
Picking your own healthy treats!
Choosing the Best Blueberries
Over the years, we’ve learned that in general the sweetest tasting blueberries are the plumper medium to large ones. This may not be true depending on the variety of blueberries being grown at a specific farm, so if they allow you to taste test right off the bush, sample some different sizes to determine for yourself which flavor you prefer. How can you tell if the blueberries you’re selecting are ripe? The ripe ones will be navy blue in color and have a gray dusted appearance, so avoid the ones with a green or pinkish hue since they’re not quite ripe for the picking yet. We found that there were a lot more of the larger blueberries toward the bottom center of the bushes where they’re more protected from wildlife like birds, and where fewer people tend to bend down low to reach their berries. If you want to get more of a workout you can incorporate squats into your picking. Squat down, pick a few berries, stand up and place them in your bucket, and repeat.
Navy blue with gray dusted appearance – ripe!
Pinkish hue – not ripe yet
Picking blueberries is fun, but what can you do with your hefty load of blueberries once you get them home? There are many options to choose from, so here are our suggestions. You can eat your delicious blueberries by the handful, pour them into some healthy cereal, make blueberry pie, blueberry bread, or blueberry muffins, or put them in a fruit salad or use them in a smoothie.
If you love blueberries and have a small garden at your home, you can consider planting a blueberry bush or two of your own. That way, if you can’t make it out to the farm as often as you’d like, you have a backup at home to satisfy your blueberry craving. Keep in mind that blueberries are also a tasty treat to wildlife, so you may want to protect your garden with chicken wire or some other deterrent.
Health Benefits
Blueberries are arguably one of the healthiest fruits you can eat. They are packed with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that can impact your health for the better. This fruit, when eaten regularly, can help to improve type 2 diabetes by increasing insulin sensitivity. It is also known to improve heart health by reducing the amount of cholesterol that’s oxidized in the blood, and by increasing nitric oxide production in the body they can reduce blood pressure. Cognitive function (conscious reasoning, thinking, and remembering) can also be improved through regular consumption of blueberries. This is why blueberries are well known for being one of the ultimate brain foods.
Practical Considerations
Any time you plan to go out into the sun, bring a hat, sunglasses, and apply some sunscreen to protect yourself from those harmful UV rays. Be sure to reapply your sunscreen at the frequency listed on the sunscreen container since sun protection typically only lasts about 2 hours. Bug spray may be a good idea too since you’re highly likely to encounter insects during your outdoor adventure. Be sure to only apply your bug spray to exposed skin, not skin under your clothing. If you plan on using a bug spray containing DEET, it can stain your clothes, so be mindful of that, and always read and follow the directions on the label.
Find your local U-Pick!
Search “U-pic” or “pick-your-own” on Google maps
Discovering Farms Near You
If you’re local to Rochester, you can visit Green Acres U-Pick this year (2022) for their 50th and final year of U-pick service at their Latta road location. They will continue offering U-pick at their West Wind Farms location, which is located at 928 Manitou Rd, Hilton, NY 14468. If you’re not local, that’s not a problem. You can easily find a local pick-your-own farm near you by simply searching Google, or by searching “U-pick” or “pick your own (insert what fruit or vegetable you want to pick) near me” in your mapping app. Just make sure to call ahead for hours of operation and any other information you may need that is pertinent to your visit.
Budget Friendly Outing
These farms will have various produce fresh-for-the-picking depending on their growing season. The idea here is that you get to pick your own super-fresh produce and your kids get to enjoy a great experience that can be very fun and rewarding for everyone involved. In addition, you’ll be supporting a local business! This is a budget friendly adventure for the family since you pay per pound for your fruit and there’s no entrance fee. We paid $3.50 per pound of blueberries on our family outing, so the whole trip was under $15 (excluding gas cost), along with the obvious take-away that you’re bringing those delicious blueberries home to enjoy.
Lots of “pick your own” farms are available throughout the United States and in most cases are less expensive than buying the produce at your local grocery store, so take the trek and get out there to pick perfect produce on this budget friendly activity with your family!
Hey there! I simply wish to offer you a huge thumbs
up for your excellent information you’ve got here on this post.
I’ll be coming back to your website for more soon.