a day at the farm

On the weekend, we headed out to the country, the Westham Island Herb Farm to be exact, to check out their 7th annual “A Day at the Farm” event. The highlight for me was seeing the shaggy cow... I mean, just look at him... he’s such a cutie. I would want to just brush its hair for hours. Due to it’s large size though, I think little Jasper preferred looking at the goats a lot better. Bleet.

pumpkin patch kid

A few pumpkin picking pictures to share today... and yes, I had to dress Jasper accordingly for the occasion. I have been waiting for the day that his noggin could fit this hat I got him last year, and that day finally came... it was perfect for his first wheelbarrow ride on the pumpkin farm. I swear he is smizing in the last photo... or maybe that is just me watching too much Top Model.

my little pumpkin

We went to the local farm on the weekend to pick up some fresh local veggies and were pleasantly reminded that pumpkin season has started! I refrained from getting one this early, since there is nothing grosser than possible rotting gourds sitting on our balcony, not to mention the added task of having to keep it away from one very curious toddler. So it was decided that pumpkin picking will have to wait a couple more weeks in this household. Jasper did get to have a practice run though... the whole time we were there, he insisted on trying to sit on every single one... perhaps he was playing musical pumpkins in his head.

berry delicious

Phew... I have been trying to upload this darn photo forever.. and it has finally worked! Sometimes, Blogger just hates me. Anyways, I just wanted to remind everyone that strawberry season is here! We went strawberry picking on the weekend and picked about 10 lbs worth. Seriously, you have never seen someone pick as fast as yours truly wearing the baby in the harness... after what felt like 1000 squat lunges, I filled my bucket in 20 minutes. Anyways, it was well worth it... check out our bounty!

farm friends

Some more pics from our adventure at the PNE... these are of all the farm friends we encountered that day. Kissing horses (or maybe they are gossiping?) and snotty giant cows (someone get this guy a giant tissue!)... they are all pretty cute, nasal secretions and all.

country time

Now that summer is officially here, one of our favourite things to do is to venture to the local farms to buy fresh produce. We picked up some organic strawberries and spinach at the the Westham Island Herb Farm in Ladner over the weekend.... um, and yes, the strawberries have already all been devoured... yum! (I knew we should have bought the flat instead of the basket!) I think we'll have to head back soon to get some more! Check out this cute farm if you happen to be in the area... they have tons of fresh veggies, fruit, flowers and herbs. Oh yes, and speaking of herbs... I will post soon on my teeny tiny balcony garden... off to take some pics!

a berry good time

Yesterday, we headed out to a Emma-Lea's Farm on Westham Island and had a berry good time (sorry, couldn't resist using a Strawberry Shortcake-ism there). It's the last weekend the u-pick fields are open, so we went crazy and stocked up on raspberries, blackberries and blueberries... yum! Picking went by pretty fast, with only the blackberries proving a bit tricky since they were growing on a downward slope into a canal (of course, murphy's law that the prickliest of fruit bushes lay on a slippery bank next to the muddy waterway full of frogs). Hmmmm... now what to make with all these lovely berries... suggestions?

tayberries are here!

Perhaps you were like me and asking what the heck is a tayberry? We went raspberry picking on the weekend, and whilst picking noticed a sign for Tayberrries... turns out that they aren't mutant long raspberries (as I was calling them), but a cross between a raspberry and a blackberry... and they are soooo good! Noticing that no one else in the field seemed very interested, we went to town... realizing pretty quickly why not a lot of people like to pick them... argh.. can the bushes be any thornier? At times I had to make sure my red stained fingers were from the fruit and not from the constant slivers I was getting. Anyhoo, after an hour of stealthy ninja-like picking maneuvers we managed to get a big bucket of them... and it was sooo worth it! 

señor sonburro

I couldn't resist posting these pics, since they are so darned cute... and I wanted everyone to have an "awwwwwwwww" moment today; and I mean "awwwwwwwww" in the cute sense, and not in the "disappointment" sense... well unless you hate cute fuzzy donkeys, in which case you wll be highly disappointed. We saw these two on our way home from strawberry picking, and my hubby stopped the car to go feed them some grass through the fence. I had to nickname one of them Señor Sonburro... I don't know why, it just seemed fitting. And yes, I know it's a bad pun that attempts to allude to "sombrero", but whatever, the donkey didn't complain.

On a quick side note - thanks to the following blogs for passing on the lovely blog award this past week (Intrigued, Indie Style Blog, Latherati Soap Foundry, Pretty {much} Art, Scarlett Design and My Name Is Michael I Got A Nickel) - I have already done a past posting about the Lovely Blog Award, so check out my list of fifteen here, if you already haven't.

strawberry fields forever

Wooohoo... strawberries are finally here! This past weekend, we ventured out to the farms on Westham Island, a short ride outside of Vancouver, to pick some fresh strawberries. We managed to fill two extra large ice cream buckets... and I got a bit of nice tan in addition to my berry stained fingers. I was tempted to pick more... but being a horrible guesser of weights and measures, I was a bit paranoid of picking more than the cash we had in hand (yes, I am a bit of a worry wort). After our agricultural adventure, we enjoyed tall cold glasses of strawberry milkshake made at the local farm stand... just writing about this is making me want another one... so please excuse me, while I go and fire up the blender.