Last fall we made our first visit to Tanaka Farms to pick our own pumpkins. Tanaka is a thirty-three acre organic farm that sits in the heart of one of Orange County's largest residential area. It sells its produce to county residents through a CSA program and at the farm stand on the property that is open daily. This weekend was the beginning of the farm's annual Strawberry Tours - an hour and fifteen minute tractor drawn wagon ride around the farm, with a stop that offered the opportunity to pick and enjoy fresh strawberries right out of the field. Such a deal!
Last fall we'd only gone as far as the "U-Pick" pumpkin field, so today we enjoyed the opportunity to ride around the farm and see, up close, fields of various crops. (We were also offered tastes of fresh picked lettuce, spinach, carrots, cilantro, snap peas and Chinese broccoli en route.) The farm also raises some stone fruits, and we were quite surprised to see, that they have a area with fruiting banana trees, as well. From the pictures of the field where we picked strawberries today, you might notice that the berry plants are interspersed with onions - a "trick" of organic farming - the insects that are most likely to attack the fruit are repelled by the odor of the onions.
We came home with two pints of strawberries that we picked ourselves, as well as some other goodies (including Angel Food Cake) from the farm stand. And, we think that we'll go back in the summer and take in the Watermelon tour.
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