We Pick "U-Pick"

For the sake of making the most of the summer while giving the girls an opportunity to learn where food really comes from (besides the grocery store), we visited Lawrence Farms Orchards nestled in upstate New York.  This is one of two outings in our summer "Field Trip" series.  I had a few more adventures in mind, but an out-of-the-blue relocation changed our lives quite a bit.  More on that on another post.

The drive to Newburgh, NY is about an hour long bordering the Hudson River Valley and past the renowned West Point Military Academy.  We decided to take the Bear Mountain Bridge to get a bird's eye view of the highlands of the Hudson River.  After some swerving, pebbled roads, we arrive at a plateau, which offers magnificent views of various orchards. 

Vegetable orchard

Apple orchard

A further ride towards the parking lot, I stumbled upon a latrine.  Although there's not anything nice about them, I found this one to be worthy of a picture.

Latrine

At the main store, Toddler S and G decide to take a picture near one of the local resident dogs. 

G & Toddler S

Menu of fruits and vegetables

A wagon in hand, we decide to start our picking expedition.  I seriously considered getting into one of these.  It was a wise decision I didn't, because the wheel slightly came out as I attempted to maneuver the wagon downhill.    

Transportation

Tasting apple

After a hard-day of picking and gathering our produce, we went home to prepare the day's meal.    

Zucchini

The zucchini was sauteed with extra virgin olive oil (evoo) along with fresh garlic, and a few dashes of Tony Chachere's Cajun seasoning to wake up the flavor.

Sweet corn

Waldo was in charge of the corn.  He simply wrapped it in foil and added a pad of butter.  The corn was cooked on the grill.

Raspberries

The fresh raspberries, mainly picked by G, were delicately added to two scoops of vanilla ice cream we enjoyed with a very extra special birthday cake Waldo picked up at a local patisserie.  I'll talk about this special locale in the future.  

What did we take away from the day?  I would say the importance of having easy access to fresh and relatively safe food on demand.  A "No Farms No Food" bumper sticker reminds me of this fact every time I see one of the roads.  

"Chuck, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore"

After the traveling we've put Chuck through recently, he's probably happy spending his days underneath the sofa inside the bottom cover.  He ventures out when necessary... 

I think when you have buffalo grazing near the road and are about to eat at a restaurant that serves "Mountain Oysters", which I naively assumed to be large oysters prior to being corrected, it's safe to assume you're in Kansas or somewhere in the mid-states.  The sad thing is that these animals are pretty much free to do as they wish in comparison to the folks living inside the facility in the background of the picture.  

Buffalo

                                               

Metropolitan menu

For those of you wondering whether we went for the Mountain Oysters, the answer is no.  I definitely took the recommendation (see note in menu) for this meal choice and opted for the Mushrooms along with good ol' mid-west food; steaks.

Filet Mignon

KC Strip

What were we doing in Kansas you might ask?  Thoughtful Uncle Sam decided we would benefit from a few weeks of daily class time to be "better leaders."  During the process, I found out my personality type by taking the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality questionnaire. 
Interestingly, my personality type (INFJ) is shared by only 1-3% of the world's population.  Now I know why I feel like most people just don't understand me!  The goal by taking this assessment is to function in varied settings with different personality types and leave your comfort zone (i.e. your type indicator) and strive to take some of the character traits of another type indicator.  Imagine, if we all took the test, perhaps the world would be that much better.  Having sad that, I'll challenge my family --- you know who you are --- to take it and share their results with me.  Who knows, we may share in a 5 hour long conversation, because we now understand one another.  In all, I got a lot of good tools in my pocket and was happy to get away in one week's time.  Waldo, however, has a few more weeks to go...