Garden Patch Farms

This past weekend we took the kids apple picking.  There are so many different places around us we end up going to a different place every year.  This year we went to Garden Patch Farms in Homer Glen.  It's relatively close (took us under an hour to get there), small but good.  They have over 60 kinda of apples all of which were available to pick.  You pay $5 pp to go out to the orchard and they give you as many bags as you want to fill up.  Pay by the weight at the end $2/lb.  You can borrow a wagon to haul your stuff (or kids) in. Little Man liked having his sisters pull him around.  My husband tried to pull all the kids and the apples but that didn't really work.

 There are also vegetables to pick too but we stayed with the apples.  Unlike some of the bigger orchards the different varieties are mixed in different rows.  They have signs at the end of each row telling you what is in that row, but once you get in the row signs are hard to find.  So we picked based on color.

 After picking we headed back to the main area for lunch.  We brought our own and I'm glad we did as there isn't much available - chili and donuts was all I noticed.  They have cold water, juice boxes and of course apple cider available to purchase.

There is a bounce house - which had no line the whole time we were there.  There is a small barn with a few farm animals - chickens, goats, and a pig and a couple of shy barn cats.

We really enjoyed it and would go back again next year.  So many of the orchards feel like they have to add all these extra attractions to make it fun for kids, but our kids had a great time.  They had pumpkins for sale as well but I don't like to buy them too early in case they go bad before we can carve them.  They also have lots of prepicked veggies available to purchase. 

We'll be heading out to get pumpkins in a couple of weeks.  Last year we went to Didier Farms (which has all the carnival attractions).  The kids have asked to go back there again, which is fine.  Next year I hope we can go to a real pumpkin patch and get it off the vine.  It's been a while since we've done that but our October weekends are crazy this year. 

I've already made one batch of apple cinnamon muffins and am planning on making applesauce this afternoon.  This weekend I plan on making the first pie.

It was a fun day with the added bonus of not being far away.  The past two years we've missed apple picking because we couldn't find the time to head way to out to farm country.  Nice to find a good place relatively close.