Recently my family had the opportunity to visit “our” CSA farm, Tanaka Farms in Irvine.
Sunflowers, corn, and thousands of pumpkins!
Our first stop was the wagon ride, which took us to see the pumpkin cannon. Yes, that cannon really fired a small white pumpkin cannonball over the fields and onto the empty hillside beyond.
The pumpkin cannon. If you click on the photo you can see the bananas growing in the grove!
Next up was the watermelon patch. Only in Orange County would you see this:
Golfers on the driving range behind the watermelon patch
After the ride we stopped at the CSA table for a snack prepared especially for CSA members: kale and apple salad in agave dressing, squash and onion stir fry, and watermelon slices. Thus refueled, we walked through the corn maze and out to the u-pick vegetable patch.
That’s either a leg or an arm, picking radishes. I’m going with arm.
The crops in the u-pick vegetable patch included radishes, carrots, onions and green beans for $2.99 a pound. With the three girls helping, we managed to pick six pounds!
I should have worn some farming overalls to pick onions
Don’t worry, we also picked pumpkins, three for $7.75 each. That’s a pretty good price considering I paid $7 for the pumpkin I bought at the grocery store to make pumpkin curry soup and whole wheat pumpkin muffins, although I saw jack-o-lantern pumpkins at Trader Joe’s for $2.99 today — a much better deal than Vons!
Have you ever been to a u-pick farm? We’ve been to so many over the years I can hardly name all the things we’ve picked — blueberries, strawberries (organic at our old CSA, South Coast Farms in San Juan Capistrano), cherries, apples (organic at Apple Starr Orchards in Julian), raspberries, tomatoes, and now all kinds of vegetables at Tanaka Farms.
Fit Fun Mom 