Peach picking!

I went peach picking with friends. While I probably got more peaches than I would be able to eat on my own, it was lots of fun. A great thing to do with family and/or friends. Now I have to figure out what to with all of the peaches. A pie or jam could be a possibility, maybe find a smoothie recipe.

Apples coming in season soon maybe I will go for those next. Hope you can get out and get some fresh fruit or veggies from local farms, Meet Me Outdoors.

A Day Outside: Berry Picking, Orioles Game AND Concert in the Park!

What a day!  I basically just spent the whole day outside.  What could have been a cloudy rainy day according to the forecast on Friday turned into a hot and humid day in the sun.  I brought my big sunhat, sunglasses and lots of sunscreen... still got a bit of of a sunburn but not as bad. Now on the aloe treatment.  Next time more sun screen!

Today started early with a trip to Larriland Farms were I met one of my friends and we picked raspberries.  They have both red and purple variety at this time of year and even blue berries.  We stuck to the raspberries and got over 5lbs worth that we split between the two of us to take home.  It was getting to be really hot out with the sun overhead so we didn't stay much past noon.  I have already eaten a bunch and the rest are in the fridge waiting for me to blend into a nice smoothie that may turn to sorbet if I decide to freeze it.  Seeing that the rest of this week is looking to be another lovely heatwave, having some sorbet might be perfect use for the berries... Boiling them down into jam is a great way to help preserve them, maybe even a fruit pie, but I enjoy quick and simple so blend, drink, freeze.

Right behind home plate!

 Midday, after I sorted and cleaned the berries I brought back I went to the Orioles vs Blue Jays baseball game.  I traded in the tickets (thanks Grandmom) for a seat that was in the lower level and with some shade.  Turns out I got a great seat, just a few rows below the press box and right behind home plate.  Of course there was a tall guy sitting in front of me who blocked my view a bit, but otherwise really good seats... My brothers might be a bit jealous, but I can't control that.  Because I didn't have too many distractions of other people I actually was able to pay attention to the game... O's won!

Panorama view from my seat

Even a dragonfly wanted to watch the game (it's on the wire)

The panorama view is from the game midway through. I took it from my seat above the head of the tall guy you see in the above picture to the right of the frame. My standard baseball game snack is cotton candy but I also got a fruit smoothie as a nice healthier drink choice that also is very refreshing in this hot weather.

After the game continued on to phase 3 of my day outside in the sun... interestingly enough it's a Sunday.  I moved on to Patterson Park for their summer concert series.  Today's musician was Ellen Cherry.  The concerts are held outside on the eastern lawn of the Patterson Park Pagoda.  Bring a lawn chair, picnic blanket, kids, dogs, munchies, whatever and chill out to some awesome music. Concerts are free and open to the public from roughly 6:30p-8:30p. 

Before the concert by the Pagoda

I tried to get a group of people together but only one person found me, it was pretty crowded.  There was a nice ambiance, for lack of a better word. We picked a nice shaded area below the Pagoda to sit and listened to music.  I brought munchies... including some of the berries I picked.

The picture on the left is from before the concert.  I was walking over a bit early and stopped in the shade a bit before climbing the hill.  Did I mention it was hot outside?  People do climb up inside the Pagoda to see the skyline view of Baltimore.  I prefer the ground level maybe a hill view as you can see in the picture below.  I guess you can call it the "after picture" because the hill is filled with people and you can see Ellen Cherry in the white dress on stage singing. The Pagoda is behind me.  As the sun got lower into what photographers "Golden Hour" which is when everything seems to have a nice golden glow at sunrise and sunset.  I wasn't quiet able to capture that effect in my own pictures, but I was able to observe it from my spot on the hill. 

After my long day outdoors I am happy to be relaxing indoors again wondering where my next adventure may take me.  Stay cool everyone, Meet Me Outdoors.

Pick-Your-Own at Baugher's

Last week I went to a Pick-Your-Own farm that was near me called Baugher's Orchard and Farm.  I originally wanted to do apple picking but that season is over here so I went pumkin picking which was just as fun.  There were lots of families and groups of people of all ages taking part in the adventure of finding a pumpkin to call their own.

It starts with a hayride out to the fields, once there you are set off to find your pumpkin.  There were a variety of pumpkins: big, small, orange, green, white even tan colored.  (The farm's market had some oddly shaped pumpkins even a multi-colored one.) Interestingly enough, a pumpkin is a fruit as it is the part of the plant that holds the seeds like an apple or tomato. They had some trivia cards up for while you wait for the hay ride to take you out there.  Thought I'd share the wisdom.  Another interesting fact is pumpkins are 90% water.  Cool stuff.

I went with some friends to the farm to share in the adventure.  The day before we were going to go it snowed, I still wanted to go and a couple of them were willing to join me.

While most of the pumpkins were a little buried under a thin layer of snow, I was set on finding a perfect pumpkin. You can see the snow in most of these pictures, if not the mud that followed its melting.

By the time we got there, most of the good pumpkins of the big and orange variety that people typically associate with, and use for Halloween carving were picked.  Left behind were some that were broken and some small decorative type pumpkins.  I ended up finding a part of the patch with some small white and orange pumpkins which I thought would be great table decorations for the holidays so I picked it out and brushed off the mud.  As there were a bunch of these in the area my friend grabbed one of his own as you can see in the picture on the right.  We also found some tiny orange ones that looked just as festive.

The adventurer in me wanted to explore more of the pumpkin patch so I got a few more pictures of what I found.  Glad I wore my mud friendly shoes because there certainly was a lot of it as we walked through the patch.

There were lots of families there and one way that Baugher's made the patch even more exciting was setting up a simple slide of large tubing and some hay bales that you can see of the distance of this photo on the left.  When we got closer we saw there was a bit of a mud puddle at the bottom and some carefully placed pumpkins so the slider won't land in the mud.  Needless to say, as big of a mud lover as I am, I was not about to slide down that. It was cold out, and cold and wet don't go well together. But I did see that some adventurous kids did go down, hopefully stopping at the bottom before getting to the mud part. Below is part of the patch that had a bunch of the large orange pumpkins that are great for carving.

Also at Baugher's was a petting zoo.  Most of the animals were typical farm animals like pigs, chickens, sheep, goats and turkeys, though we did come across a lama.  The lama was nice enough to pose for a picture.

After the trip to the pumpkin patch and the petting zoo on the farm we stopped at the market to buy some more fresh from the farm treats.  I got some apples, acorn squash and a spaghetti squash.  I still need to figure out what to do with those, so on the hunt for recipes.  My friends picked out some dried fruit packages and a pie from the market. 

There are lots of Pick-Your-Own farms out there so no matter where you are you can join in the fun.  All you got to do is wait for the fruit or veggie to be in season for picking then go for it.  Some have for strawberry, cherry, peach and apple picking but you have to come at the right time of the year.  For example if you want to go to pick strawberries you would need to go in the spring time, for peaches go in the summer time, apple season is near the end of summer through the early parts of fall.  Each farm will tell you when to come for the pick-your-own items, and some will have markets with the items fresh from the farm that they pick for you.

While the picking season my be over for my area of the world it could still be open for you.  Or perhaps it's just getting started.

Enjoy some farm fresh produce, Meet Me Outdoors.