Updated: Oct 7, 2021
Last Wednesday was a gorgeous day, not too warm, not too cold, beautiful blue sunny skies and that fresh air smell that just tingled your nostrils with each inhale. It was a prefect day to head out east on the North Shore of Long Island.
There's nothing like hitting the farms for fresh produce, fall decorations and amazing homemade pies.
I met my daughter at her house and we continued further out east in her Jeep. She chose the jeep as that's the vehicle they use for "messy stuff" like the beach, upstate camping or hiking, etc. She wanted to buy bails of hay and pumpkins so that required the messy vehicle..
Visit my article on Long Island - South Shore On The Coldest Day of the Year.
Unfortunately, during the week, most of the farms don't allow pick your own, which is what I love to do. They are open on the weekends, mostly Friday through Sunday, but the traffic and the crowds are overwhelming for me now that I can't walk well or stand long. Sitting in the car in traffic for hours isn't good for me either.
Check out last year's trip with my sister. Long Island North Fork Farms, Food and Fun and our day at the winery this past spring. Long Island, New York Northshore Winery.
Please visit my YouTube Channel, subscribe, hit the bell for notifications so you don't miss any new videos and give a thumbs up to the videos you like. Feel free to share and comment/ask questions. (check out my Gluten Free Baked Goods)
After our stop at the roadside farm last year, my sister and I headed further out east and stopped at a large farm holding a Garlic fest.
My daughter and I made our way out East and stopped at the first farm to get Mums that my daughter wanted. She also bought some pumpkins and decorations.
We were intent on finding some of the few farms who allow you to pick your own during the week. When we left the first farm,, my daughter saw a sign and we followed it. Unfortunately, the sign was just for weekends. So we continued on, searching.
We found another farm and were able to get my apples. Not pick your own, but at least they were farm fresh. That farm was out of plum tomatoes.. Check out my recipe for Gluten Free Farm Fresh Apple Crisp.
We soon found ourselves back on the main road, not far from the Tanger outlets. That's called TRAFFIC. I told my daughter to make a left off of 25A and it would take us back to Sound Avenue. Of course, she picked a dead end. So, we decided to go back the way we came rather than drive into heavy traffic.
The blog.
She found a long windy road with farmland and nothing else. Beautiful scenery, a gorgeous lavender farm, beautiful green acreage and the bright orange blinking of her gas light. Yes, as we were admiring the beauty surrounding us, my daughter announced her gas light was on. Like mother/like daughter. We both cracked up.
At least it wasn't a hurricane. We can deal with running out of gas. No biggie. But me and hurricanes, that's another story. See Hurricane Henri Hitting Long Island.
My daughter decided to pull over and check her phone for the nearest gas station. Where does it bring us? Right back where we had just come from, into town, into traffic. Oh joy.
We got gas and some pickies nearby. I bought her a wrap and I got some gluten free chips. And we were off. I told her to head East with the traffic for a little bit until we found another road leading back to Sound Avenue.
Stony Brook University Cancer Center Announces Breast Cancer Awareness Month Programs
We found a great road and a little farm stand. I jumped out and asked for plum tomatoes. They were out. There was no pick your own and they hadn't picked. The very nice man told me if I had come the day before, they would have had some. Or I could come back on the weekend and pick my own. Great info., but it didn't help me in the least at the moment!
We continued down the country road admiring all the farmland as we drove. I looked ahead and said, "There's Sound Avenue." She didn't realize there was a little exit ramp to go right and all of a sudden, as she came upon it, she made a quick jolt onto the small exit. Everything went flying and we were jostled a bit but unharmed. We laughed our butts off.
A bit up the road, we found another great farm stand. Yay. Many of the farms have kids activities and this one was set up with a lot of play areas. It's chock full on weekends.
Check out my Most Viewed Recipes.
I was FINALLY able to purchase my plum tomatoes. My daughter bought some hay bails and pumpkins and we couldn't resist buying a freshly baked homemade apple pie.
After all that, we headed home. She had an appointment at 6 p.m. and I was tired. As we headed back west on Sound Avenue, we realized we were right up the road from the first farm we had stopped at. We drove all around in circles, back up to 25A, and back down to Sound Avenue all to go a little up the road from where we originally where.
Of course, had I not been determined to find pick your own on a weekday, we would have never ventured off Sound Avenue. But we had some good laughs, lots of fun and spent quality time together.
We finally made it back to my daughter's house. She unloaded the Jeep and decorated her front entranceway as I admired her talent. She has always been talented with artsy things, be it arts and crafts, decorating and of course, photography. She's a professional photographer.
It was a fun day filled with laughter. Can't wait for our next outing.
