Sweetest Season At Larriland; When A Pick-Your-Own Farm Becomes A Great Bring-Your-Own Date

Peaches at Larriland

The sweetest season of the year has begun, and you need to get to Larriland Farm to pick yourself a piece this fall.

The summer fruits have truly arrived with peaches, blackberries, and raspberries.  The tomato fields are packed with red.  The apples have started, and they'll run through October with the pumpkins and the hay-maze-weekends.

Last week, we drove to Woodbine for peaches and tomatoes.  Like 70+ pounds.  It was easy.  We filled two boxes of peaches from three or four trees.  No one needs two boxes.  We have had two pies, four pints of salsa, and cut fruit at every moment.  They're heavy with juice and sweet throughout.  They're terrific gifts.

My peach advice is "Bring a wheelbarrow."  Larriland has nice plastic ones, and you take over when someone else checks out.  My tomato advice is "Be picky."  Orange tomatoes will ripen into red.  But cracks and splits will rot too soon.  Mrs. HowChow was picky.  I made mistakes.

Tomatoes -- going in sauce

Real tomatoes are spectacular.  The flavor keeps me from eating them 10 months of the year.  Chop them.  Mix with basil.  You can make a meal by putting that on toast and calling it bruschetta.  Chop, cook and cook down 24 pounds of them, and you can end up with 6+ quarts of canned tomato sauce -- but that will cost you the better part of the day.

So much cooking that my feet hurt.

Seriously, you should go see Larriland.  It's 30 minutes from most of Howard County, an easy drive on U.S. 70.  In October, they add food on the weekend and a maze of hay bales for the kids.  For kids, it's a great day, especially if you pick a pumpkin.  

For other folks, it's a great date -- pick up some barbecue from Town Grill in Lisbon, then drive to the farm to pick apples, picnic with your barbecue, and maybe get a jack-o-lantern to carve together.  Very easy to bring friends along.  Mrs. HowChow's friends gave me the once over on an early Larriland trip.