U-Pick Tour–Patterson Fruit Farm, Chesterland Ohio–Peaches!

Today, we went back to Patterson Fruit Farm.  Our last trip there was on June 23rd when we picked strawberries for the last time of the 2011 season.  Today’s trip was all about peaches!  Peaches are one of my favorite fruits to eat with my oatmeal.  I could eat them almost everyday.  I have blueberries in the freezer for the other days.

The peach picking is new at Pattersons.  I believe this is the second year.  They only have peach picking for 2 weekends.  So, that’s 4 days of picking.  They are open from 9 AM – 5 PM, but it’s more realistic to say they are open from 9 AM until they are picked out for the day.  The peach picking is at 8765 Mulberry Road.  Pattersons also has a market on Caves Road.  Once you arrive, it’s a simple drive to the peaches by following the arrows.  You park right in front of the peach trees.  There’s not too much walking involved.  We did bring the stroller and we were glad to have it so we could carry the peaches.

We approached the tent and were greeted by a nice gentleman working and this sign.  A 1/2 bushel of peaches is $25 and holds approximately 27 pounds.  You buy the container of choice and head to fill it up.  It was easy.  The trees were full of peaches.  We were instructed to pick only the ones that were “big and plump”.  We walked to the end of the rows of peaches where it wasn’t crowded and didn’t have any trouble filling up our container.

Stephen joined us today, which also made the picking go faster.

Nick and Sally picked a couple of peaches.  Of course, they had to try them out.

While Stephen was busy picking, they were busy eating them.  Sally could live off fruit.

We ran into some friends and were able to get a group shot.  It’s always fun to get a photo of the 4 of us.  That doesn’t happen often enough.

We ended up picking 2 half-bushels of peaches.  We didn’t weigh them, but it’s approximately 54 pounds of peaches for $50.  These containers are cardboard boxes that are approximately 8 inches tall.  I was going to spend the morning canning the peaches, but I don’t think they are quite soft enough for the skins to come off easily when I boil them, so I will probably be canning on Monday and Tuesday.  I’m hoping to can slices, jam, sauce and peach honey.