MOOD'S Farm Market!

'Tis the season to venture out to pumpkin patches and farms! It has been at least eight years since we've been to moods farm market and when I finally had the urge to go back I nearly teared up. Mood's farm was one of the very first farms we went to when we first moved to New Jersey. Sitting at the picnic table eating apple cider donuts and drinking apple slushes while gazing toward the corn maze bought back so many memories when my girls (and boy) were babies/toddlers/teens. 

This was a place of many firsts. 

This is where we picked our first blueberry. Our first apple. Our first blackberry. Our first peach. Our first of everything. Some of the best memories were made at this little farm and I will always treasure them for the rest of my life. And today I went with one of those babies who is now a young adult! It was so nice reminiscing about our little adventures here as well as spending the day in places we hadn't been to in forever! Such a fun autumn day! 

BLUEBERRY PICKING!

When I was a little girl I remember always looking forward to summer. As kids the heat never bothered me, and I always wanted to spend time outside. Now that I'm older it's a bit different, but nonetheless I still love my summer. Jersey summers are warm, but that fact that we have the four seasons makes me appreciate summer even more, and no matter how hot it gets it truly has become one of my favorite seasons. 

I love being outdoors, and having two young children who enjoy being outside is an adventure, and so I try my best to not get worn out so that I can have the energy to take them out on a warm summer day. 

Whether it's the park, or just sitting outside reading a book while their splashing in the little blue pool, being outside in the summer time cleanses my soul from those past brutal months of winter. And it makes me want to be surrounded by nature.

So far, this summer has definitely been the year of picking for the Jorgensens, and this was the first time we've ever picked blueberries! 

Ever since we got back from Palmyra I have been craving blueberries. Fresh blueberries. My girlfriend whom we stayed with gave us cereal for breakfast in which we added blueberries in it. I've never put blueberries in cereal, but I have to say this was really tasty, not to mention super healthy. So as soon as we came home we bought the protein cheerios cereal, and then went to the orchard to go blueberry picking.  I wasn't sure if they were still in season, and they were. The kids had so much fun picking, and pulling. 

Aside from taking pictures, picking and pulling blueberries is literally all that we did! And it was fun!

I'm the type of mom who allows them to do a taste test while picking. I know, probably not a good idea since they're not washed but hey...you're only a kid once right? Noah, to my surprise is not big on blueberries, but just wait until he's older. It's kind of my fault because my counter in the kitchen is never stocked with fruits. Really need to work on that. I've made a goal to have fresh fruit on hand especially during the summer months so that they can have a healthy snack. 

yep...we've definitely become fruit picking fanatics. 


***You can view our blackberry & peach picking posts here, and here. 

Blackberry Picking!

Nothing makes me happy than seeing my kids happy, and it's always the simplest of things that do the trick. Looking at this photo with the kids grinning tells me that they were having a good time. Noah seemed a little annoyed that I interrupted his blackberry picking by telling him to get in the picture with me. His little grunt that he makes is a sign telling me (without any back talk), "not now mama." Nonetheless he obliged, and as you can see is smiling up at the sky. 

We drove out to Moods farm yesterday, and for the first time I let him, and Chelsea roam around to pick out the darkest of blackberries on their own. Of course I was supervising from a distance, but still let them have a little bit of freedom. That is until I saw Noah picking the unripened ones! No matter how many times Chelsea and I kept telling him to grab the "black" ones he would still grab the ones that were half red and half dark. He'll get it, and I'm sure next time he'll be better. Chelsea was the same way, and now she is a pro at distinguishing the ones that are ripe from the unripened ones. Last year we came in late July, and I remember the blackberries being super ripe, and not too picked over, but luckily we managed to snatch a few good ones. 

The day was beautiful and sunny, but so very hot. I always manage to forget to bring bottled water, but when the farm is only 20 minutes away you don't really think to do that. I least I don't. These kids are so resilient though, and didn't even think about the warm sun beating on them. They're too busy having fun...and picking. 

We also managed to pick a few nectarines, raspberries, and only picked four peaches. I wasn't in a peachy mood because there have been times where we picked way too many, and they ended up going bad. Besides Noah began stomping on the ground. At first I though he was on the brink of having a meltdown because he had mentioned getting tired at one point, but then I realized that he was stomping on the peaches that had fallen onto the ground! Luckily he wore his boots so that the juices did splash all over his feet had he worn sandals. We picked what we'd eat, and we were satisfied. 

The kids had so much fun today, and it makes me feel good knowing that at the end of every activity, trip, or a simple outing that I'm still pretty good at doing this mama thing in my 40's...especially with a toddler. Summer is definitely a time to bond with family, and these kids have been very good at doing that. There was no bickering, or grumpiness. Just pure happiness, and of course when you have that mixed together with these two our day just goes by so much better.  

Fall season is going to be here before we know it, and when that time comes we'll definitely be back to pick some more peaches, and apples. Now that's the perfect time to be baking (not when it's hot!)

See ya in the fall moods...

and a happy weekend to you! 

a crisp morning at moods farm.

I felt as if we were in the wrong season when I woke up yesterday. The 70 degree weather felt too much like fall to me. It felt nice, and it was the perfect day to go out and go blackberry picking. 

We do this every year, and orchards are our favorite thing to go to in the outskirts of Jersey, and going to Moods Farm is the perfect place to go for picking in the summer and fall.

We all headed out to the orchard and picked big, ripe, juicy blackberries! You can see here where Noah and Chelsea are really enjoying picking blackberries. They had too much fun. Red fingers, and everything. Noah was shoving blackberries into papas mouth without notice. 

Peaches were a little picked over, but we managed to grab a few good ones. He tried to pick some on his own, but to no avail. I vined his disappointment and you can watch that here. He began picking some up from the ground, and we explained to him that those are no good. After a while he was excited to be pulling them off of the tree from papas shoulders. 

And Chelsea just wanted to get on his shoulders for fun! 

Since it felt like a fall day we decided to buy some apple cider donuts, and sit down and enjoy the breeze. These are the best donuts, and the main reason we keep coming back. It was a yummy treat for these two. 

Someones hands are dirty! 

As we were walking back to the car from peach picking Jon was telling us a childhood story about a peach tree he once had in his backyard. One year they noticed a peach bore on their tree, and in their last year their tree ripened with peaches the size of softballs. He said they were huge, and his family went to town eating them. 

Stories like that are great memories for Jon, and I'm grateful he has so many to share with our kids. I hope that when our kids grow up they will be able to tell stories to their children about their days going to Moods Farm in Jersey picking all kinds of fruit with mom & pa.

This day was total perfection! 

apple picking & the red barn.

One thing I never did ever until I moved to Jersey was pick apples with our kids. I never did it in Texas, or North Carolina, or Utah. The only thing I would pick from a tree in Utah were apricots in my mother-in-laws backyard, and that was about it.

This is another reason why I love Fall!

For the past four years we have made it a tradition to go to one of our favorite orchards to pick some apples. My better half tagged along, and he really had a blast with the kiddos helping them pick the best apples.

Since the time for apple picking is almost over, we were lucky enough to have the whole place to ourselves.

There were so many apples thrown on the ground. It makes me feel bad because I think of those children who are hungry, and when I see apples thrown on the ground I think it's a waste. Oh well...that's how orchards roll I guess.

Chelsea has picked apples with us before, and this was Noah's official first time. He was a baby when I first took him, and all he did was sleep in his carseat until we were done. Chelsea was such a helpful sister showing Noah which apples are good to pick.

and so did dad.

Now that he is older, and he knows what an apple is...he absolutely LOVES them. The apple is one his favorite fruits, and has been for at least a year now.

and boy do will we have fun baking apple pie with apples picked from an apple tree.

pink lady apples picked from the orchard.

After we picked apples we decided to cruise around the country side of South Jersey. We found this red barn, and oh... how I love barns! It didn't look abandoned, yet there was no one around so we decided to just let the kids explore.

Noah was hoping to find some horses in the barn, but even though we knew there weren't any we decided to pretend there were.

Knock knock...Noah was knocking against the barn to see if he could hear any neighing or some kind of noise. I was playing along with him.

We were doing this for quite a while, and I think he knew there were no animals in the barn. 

We still had fun just hanging out on this beautiful sunny day with the perfect fall weather,

and it was a perfect day spent with our two youngest!

I loved, loved this day!