The photos in this post are more informative than pretty, but I thought I'd tell you about my visit to the Bauman's pumpkin farm a few weeks ago. It's become kind of a tradition for my church friends to go each October, because we try to get together monthly, and Pami really loves going to the farm for some Tillamook pumpkin ice cream. Sometimes the weather is awesome, but this time it was super rainy and we all debated about whether to go. After a bit of discussion, we decided we might as well. This is Oregon, after all--people go places in the rain. Plus, Pami was really excited about the ice cream!
But what I hadn't really considered was the mud. The parking lot at this particular farm is just dirt and some straw, so after barely making it out to our parking spot (Deborah was not so fortunate--more on that later), we had to trek back through the mud to get to the farm activities. I made a poor choice in photo backgrounds for this picture, so you can't see as well, but Pami and I have mud all over our shoes. It was also seeping into my shoes and socks. A very nice feeling!
Of course I didn't take any good photos of this because it was raining hard enough that I didn't want to take my camera out of my bag. Now I'm wishing I had documented everything better.
Fortunately they have cement and covered areas for many of the activities. Our first stop was lunch at the food area.
Then we watched the apple cider demonstration. I remembered a lot of it since we watched it last year.
Squishing apple juice out of the crushed up apples.
Spare cider jugs and mysterious "mushroom popcorn." We all theorized about this until we found some in the country store--it's just popcorn that pops into larger, vaguely mushroom-like kernels.
A nice day to be outside.
Next stop: apple tasting!
Deborah makes friends wherever she goes. That, or she already knows (and is often related to) the person. :D
A little wine tasting. I just thought the bottles looked pretty.
Giant pumpkin.
Deborah and the giant pumpkin.
I loved this light-up cherry tree (or whatever it was). I want that as my Christmas tree. ;)
This cat (I seriously spelled that with a k at first ??) was curled up on top of merchandise. Everyone was petting it and it didn't care at all. It must be the world's most laid back cat. But what if I wanted to buy one of those little toys under it?
Let's test the cat's patience. He remains unfazed. (It wasn't me!)
It was time to go, and we had been instructed to drive out of the parking lot a different way than we came in. With Pami being my coach, I got my car all the way to the edge of the road before it couldn't handle the mud anymore. My tires were spinning and spraying mud, but within seconds one of the farm staff was hooking me up to his truck so he could tow me out. This same thing had happened to Deborah when we first arrived. Meanwhile, Tony took this photo from Deborah's car since they were safely on the road (they got a good parking spot after getting stuck earlier).
Despite the rain and mud, it was a fun and memorable day. The funniest/saddest part was when we discovered Tillamook has apparently discontinued their pumpkin ice cream!! So after all that, Pami didn't get to have any at the farm. She did text us all a photo of some from Trader Joe's that she picked up on her way home. Still, what the heck, Tillamook?!
In memory. This was a photo from last year's pumpkin farm visit. Weirdly,
their site still shows that they make it. Maybe the farm discontinued carrying it? That would be even crazier--what kind of pumpkin farm doesn't include pumpkin in their available ice cream flavors?
Speaking of Tillamook, I want to go to their factory sometime. I enjoy cheese. It's just a couple of hours away, yet I haven't been! Have you?
And since I'm sure you're all dying to know, my laptop is still "in the shop," and sometimes I wonder if I'll ever get it back. :P Miss you, Green Lovely!
