Our day at Schnepf Farms

One hot morning a couple of weeks back, I got my butt in gear, got the girls dressed, and loaded them in the car for a trip to a local farm.  Schnepf Farms in Queen Creek offers pick your own peaches, apricots, and apples and I thought it would be fun for the girls and I to get out and try something new.

Having baked a disappointing crisp with canned peaches only a week earlier, I thought I'd give peaches another try.  We arrived to find a large, delightful farm with a small train running through the grounds and hay rides for visitors.  We grabbed our basket and red shopping bag, and got right to it.  Up and down the rows of peach trees we went, feeling each fuzzy fruit to check for ripeness.  And if you didn't know already, peaches don't ripen further after picking... they only get softer and as we soon found out, a lot of the ripe ones had already been picked.

But, there were plenty of peaches for all and we knew that within these rows and rows of green, lush trees there had to be some ripe ones left for us... which there were.  We filled our basket with what we thought we could use and headed to the checkout line to purchase our $9.00 worth of peaches.

The girls were fairly patient while we waited in line, but I felt like one of those mothers with all eyes on me.  Anything I said or did was going to be judged.  For a few moments I felt like I couldn't do anything right.  Should I keep them close?  Can they play on those wooden pallets?  Can they stand on those yet to be built boxes?  What if I say the wrong thing?  Which I did.  I thought it was funny, but I'm pretty sure I was the only one chuckling.  I do tend to get quite a kick out of myself. :)

After purchasing our fruit we got the stroller out of the truck and decided to check out more of the farm.  They have a nice sized section of pick your own vegetable and flowers too.

The sunflowers went as far as the eye could see and there were rows and rows of organic beets, romaine, carrots, yellow squash, kale, and green onions all for $1.50 a pound.  

The girls made sure to smell the flowers while I made sure to take some pictures.

No veggies were picked that day, but fun was had by all.  I think they enjoyed the hay bales most of all.  

Up and down they went with a few quick breaks from Maria to strike her favorite pose.  To think she used to hate getting her picture taken!

Scott had the following day off from work and took the girls for a long bike ride so I could get some baking done.  After sampling one sour peach, I was worried how the rest were going to be.  Luckily the they were fine and after blanching, peeling, and slicing all those messy peaches, it was time to get baking.

I decided to make and taste my first peach cobbler.  I used this recipe from myrecipes.com and added both nutmeg and cinnamon to the top.  It was pretty good, but unlike most people, I preferred mine cold and not necessarily with ice cream.

That same afternoon, I made Emeril's Peach Muffins with Pecan Crumb Topping.  I used the 1½ cups sugar as once reviewer had suggested and seriously baked the hell out of these things!  They weren't golden brown after the recommended 20 minutes, so I baked them for about 45 minutes.  It's most likely due to our inaccurate, economy sized oven. This recipe made exactly 24 muffins (usually I end up with more or less) but ran out of the crumb topping ¾ of the way through my second pan.  I froze half and took the rest of these tasty muffins with us to Lake Pleasant. I can see myself using other seasonal fruits in this recipe as well.

By the time I was finished baking, this trailer was hotter than hell and there was NO relief of stepping outside into the near 100° temperatures.  

In the end I had learned a few things.  1.) picking your own fruit is much more fun than buying it from any market 2.) baking for roughly 4 hours in a 34 foot trailer during summer in Arizona is a no-no 3.) I don't think I'm that into peaches.

Yeah, after all that I'm just not that into them.  I'd rather eat rhubarb, strawberries, and raspberries.  Who knew?


**I also want to thank everyone, here and there, for all the birthday wishes.  It was a great day and I'm looking forward to posting about it soon.**