Fun at the Farm

A few days ago Lucy and I met up with some friends for a field trip to Underwood Family Farms in Moorpark. Where is Moorpark, you might be wondering. I was wondering the same thing. It's north of Thousand Oaks, west of Simi Valley...basically, it's far. We took three freeways to get there, two of which I had never been on, or even heard of, before. So quite the trek, but totally worth it!

farm girl

Underwood is first and foremost a working farm, so you can see the crop fields and also pick your own produce. I was particularly impressed at how geared it is toward kids. There is whole area set up for kids where they can play, get up close and personal with animals, climb into a real tractor, take a short train ride, ride a pony; and just run around and have fun. Which Lucy and her friends did! some of the attractions are only available on the weekends, so for instance we weren't able to pet or feed the animals this time, but we were able to see them.

climbing with Charlotte

train ride with Roman

"driving" a tractor

I think Lucy's favorite was the pony ride she went on with Charlotte. I wasn't sure if she would be up for it, since I had to wait outside, but she had no qualms whatsoever. She was so excited to be riding a real horse.

I was really looking forward to picking strawberries, since I have fond memories of going strawberry picking with Grandma and Grandpa Oato and Lisa at Remlinger Farms one summer. (Please don't ask me how I remember the name of that place when I cannot remember what I ate for lunch yesterday. I guess it was just *that much* fun!) Unfortunately, we missed strawberry season. :( However, Lucy was able to pick a few raspberries, alongside her buddy, Ethan.

And by a few raspberries, I mean a few- like, maybe a couple dozen. Hardly a haul, but Lucy and I both enjoyed it. Lucy had fun looking for the ripe, red berries, picking them off ever so gently, then placing them in our bucket. I wish we would've found some blackberries, too, but it was getting late - not to mention HOT - so we didn't linger too long in the fields.

So after picking a snack's worth of raspberries, we bought some strawberries and baby bananas at the farm market, and made the long, trafficy drive home.

Bye, Underwood Farms! We had a great time, and definitely plan to return during pumpkin season!

our haul

our haul, for scale