U Pick a Lotta Berries: Webb Ranch, Portola Valley, CA June 10, 2015

Well, the days of summer are upon us and I always find myself trying to come up with some clever way to entertain my children.  Summertime is a really precious time with your kids.  They are only home for 11 weeks.  It is super easy for that time to fly by having them sleep too late, watch TV, and play computer games indoors, while I spend my time sitting at my computer, cooking, and cleaning.  Since I work two days a week, I make sure that on the other three days I plan some kind of fun activity for my kids..something to get them out of the house and hopefully into the sunshine and breathing fresh air.  One fun, quick, and relatively inexpensive option is to pick fruit on a local farm and bring it home for your own enjoyment, more commonly referred to as "U-Pick."

There are plenty of U-Pick Farms within an hours drive of Santa Clara County.  Information about all local U-Pick farms can be found on one website, pickyourown.org.   Most are located over the mountains in the Watsonville area.  Fruit availability is very seasonal I hear, though I have never tried to go any time but early June, when berries, berries, berries--are the order of the day!  Even so, every year the seasons are different, and "specific berry availability" can be limited to a very narrow window of days to weeks. As a matter of fact, I saw one farm advertise that boysenberry picking was going to be unavailable this year!   Hours and open days vary, so it is important to check the farms websites to get the details.  And remember, these are farmers, not techies, so farm websites can tend to be a little simple, short on details, and even out of date.