Field Trip to the orchard: pick your own fruit and veggies

Saturdays are special days! Mine started off great with a field trip to Gilcrease Orchard, where we got to pick our own produce.

Look at all the awesome stuff we brought home!

The fields seem to go on and on.
It was a beautiful day. Sunny, nice breeze, blue skies.
At 7:30 am, there were what seemed like hundreds of people already there, enjoying the fresh outdoors.(Or 'cause they were smart. It got over 100 degrees later that day)

Just in case you were wondering, the main row in the picture, and everything to the left, is zucchini and squash. The row to the right are beets, then carrots right of that.

There are other sections of the fields were things are still growing and aren't ready yet.  They are open until sometime in November. They even have pumpkins for Halloween.

 I was really excited to pick my own carrots. The big ones, in the middle of the row, were kinda jammed in close to each other. I accidentally  broke off the green stems on a couple carrots and had to dig them out. Oops!
I tell ya, I'm working hard for my food. :)
These are gonna be the best tasting carrots ever!

Then we drove to the part I was really looking forward to, the Apricots!! 

This is Sophia, my neighbor. She's making sure the apricots are ripe. And good enough to take home.:)
Look how long those rows are! Doesn't it look like it goes on forever? We walked in quiet a ways to all the good stuff. We found lots of trees in the middle that haven't been picked over.

 Here's a tree that if you shake it the fruit would just fall off! I went a little crazy and got tons. 

Apricot jam here I come! 

Look at those apricots! Aren't they great looking?!

I had a coworker who for a couple years, would bring me bags and bags of apricots. They were amazing.  I'd make jam every year. Then the tree died. So sad. 

Then I found out about the orchard, and how I can pick my own. Score! 

Guess what I'll be doing for the next couple days? 

You know it, Jamming! 

Jamming with some jams 

(that was a little 80's throwback there, sorry)

speaking of jams, "First, let me take a selfie" 

Here's another shot of my loot. Besides the apricots, and carrots, I got beets (they were pretty small, but I can eat the leaves) a big ol' red onion, couple different types of zucchini (zucchini bread anyone?) and the best thing of all, honey from their beehive!!

Across the street from the orchard is another house/farmer who raises chickens and sells eggs. I forgot this time, but my next trip out there I'll have to stop by for some super fancy organic eggs from their free range hand fed chickens. This family also has rabbits and goats, and set up their place like a petting zoo. Totally cute. It's a fun little excursion to see both the orchard and the egg place. I totally recommend it if you're in the area.

Hope you all had a fabulous, special day!
Hugs!
Caroline