Riamede Farm is located in Chester, NJ and is supposedly the first pick-your-own apple orchard in NJ. It's about an hour south from North Jersey. It's is a no-frills farm, i.e. no bouncy house, petting zoo, or corn maze. But honestly, I preferred it and hubby said this was the best farm he has ever been to. The farm was less chaotic and much quieter without all those "family-friendly attractions" and had a nice olde-time feel to it. And in fact, the kids didn't miss any of those things and simply enjoyed the serenity of nature and the good company of family.
We picked a variety of apples (Macoun, McIntosh, Golden Delicious, King David). Unfortunately, my favorite Fujis were not ripe yet and due to the large amounts of rain this year, a lot of the Galas had split and we didn't see very many of those on the trees. But we took home some good apples. P loved picking the tiny apples that were perfect for her little hands.
Then we moved onto tomato picking. This was the first time I've picked tomatoes, and I loved it. I prefer picking small fruits and berries in general and the kids enjoy it because the vines are perfect for their height making everything within their reach. The farm had orange and red cherry tomatoes and grape tomatoes that were really sweet.
The farm also had a large pumpkin patch, where you bring your own cutting tools to cut your pumpkin directly off the vine. I've never actually picked a pumpkin like this. Usually the pumpkins are already off the vine. This was really fun for the kids and they each picked one out to take home. I wanted a pumpkin to carve and had hubby on a mission to find me the biggest and most perfect pumpkin. He picked a 32 pounder!
After all the picking was done, the kids went on a free hayride and we stopped by the market for some treats before heading out. What a fun (but exhausting for me) day at the farm!
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