Watermelon Pickin'

Yesterday we joined a few moms and kiddos from our moms group for a tour of an organic farm. I was really looking forward to our visit there and was excited for Dman and Moo to experience farming on a decently-large scale (30 acres is decent in SoCal!). The only downside was that my night owls were not in bed as early as I had hoped the night before, and I knew waking them up early was going to be a challenge. Add to that traveling with the flow of morning commuter traffic on a freeway I despise for a trip that should take about an hour with no obstacles, well, you get the point!

Dman woke up pretty easily and was excited once I reminded him we were going to the farm. Moo, on the other hand, flipped out as soon as I tried to change her and get her dressed. I knew that moment was some kind of bad literary foreshadowing. :o/ Eventually she woke up enough to calm down and cooperate. :o) We packed up the last few items, grabbed breakfast to take with us, and we were on our way!

Thankfully we made it right on time, even with the morning traffic. But once we got there, Moo decided to be cranky. I knew she was still tired and tried to be understanding, so I let her take her doggie and bopper (cloth diaper) praying she wouldn't drop either in the dirt too many times. We got checked in and waited in a neat "holding" area--a large covered space with lots of hay bales for sitting and waiting. I think we could have ended the day there without a fuss--the kids LOVED running through there and climbing the bales, walking up and down and jumping off of them. I loved that it was fenced off at one end so I didn't have to worry about any children escaping and could let them run free!

For our tour we boarded a wagon that was being pulled by an old Ford tractor. (I later realized there was also a John Deere tractor and was sorely offended we weren't assigned to that one, lol.) Darrin was in heaven since we were the last to board, therefore sitting at the front of the wagon. He could see the tractor without having to strain and was able to watch the wheels turn (something he's super into right now). But he also thought he could pop up every 20 seconds and fiddle with the latch on the wagon door. Leave it to my budding engineer to be more enthralled with a latch than all the agriculture we were to experience!

The tour was great, though a bit over the kids' heads. Our guide, Bruce, pointed out various crops around the farm and told how to identify most veggies and fruits. He talked about how certain plants grow, which was really interesting, and he shared the ways they control pests naturally rather than with chemicals. Along the way our driver would stop and Bruce would tell us about a specific fruit or veggie, then we'd get to sample fresh produce that had been harvested earlier that morning--it had been dunked in a bucket of fresh water; no cleaning or scrubbing required! We were given radishes, carrots, cherry tomatoes, Maui sweet onions (planted among the crops to deter insects), and cilantro (to combat the spice of the radishes).

The last stop on our tour found us in a covered seating area, again with hay bales as seats. Here we were given more fruits to try--fresh, raw zucchini (did you know we eat baby zucchinis since they become bitter as they develop fully and grow to 3 feet??), pickling cucumbers, salad cucumbers, and--finally!--watermelon. Bruce offered us 2 types of watermelon--red and yellow. The red watermelon we tasted is probably the best I've ever had! The yellow wasn't quite as sweet and had an almost salty flavor. Darrin at one slice of each and the carrot he'd been given earlier. Madi chowed on everything we were handed in the "arena"--including 3 slices of watermelon. I had to keep her from eating the rind! And as you would expect, we all got pretty messy!

Finally we were able to walk around the watermelon patch and choose our own melons to take home. (Side note, and completely juvenile, but I had to stop myself from guffawing at Bruce's benign comments such as, "Don't drop your melons." Yeah, I was tired!) Dman choose one watermelon and I choose another. Madi wasn't qualified to be a "helper" but was labeled as a "watermelon picker in training" instead. :o)

Unfortunately mixed in with all of the happenings on our tour was Miss Crankypants and her meltdowns. She wanted to sit, she wanted to be held; she wanted to stand up while the tractor was moving and she did NOT want me holding on to her. When I put her down she'd freak out and want back up. *sigh* My patience was fairly nonexistent by the time we were through. Dman didn't help much...he is a boy. He gets so absorbed in what's happening around him that he tunes me out completely and wanders around with his own agenda. I'm thankful a mommy-friend was able to help me keep an eye on him when we'd unload from the wagon!

So although my temper was flared by the time we left, it didn't take long for it to
cool off; glancing in the rear-view mirror at my exhausted, peaceful kiddos showed me that in spite of the stress, it was a good trip for us all. Next week we are supposed to go raspberry picking. I can't lie; I'm really having second thoughts! But I'm also game to try most outings at least once. The joy we derive from these little experiences (so rare where we live) makes it hard to remember the frustration involved in getting somewhere on time, keeping up with 2 toddlers, and desperately capturing their moments on my Nikon while trying to be in the moment with them. That settles it--we are going raspberry picking!!

Messy, messy!











The wheels on the tractor go 'round and 'round...