13988 County Road 215J and I are always looking for new experiences with L and berry picking is one we haven’t tried yet. One of J’s friends has a little one a few months older than L and they had been looking for a play date opportunity for a couple weeks. J and I had already talked about going berry picking this past weekend, so J asked the other family if they’d like to meet us there. They were up to it so we made the play date.
The farm that we picked was Stokes Homestead Farm Market outside of Grand Junction. We chose this farm for a couple of reasons. They have U-Pick, they have a cafe that serves lunch, and J knows one of the owners daughters and has heard good things through the grapevine.
Stokes Homestead is on the corner of 14th Avenue and 54th Street south of Grand Junction proper. The farms has been there since the 70′s, but the new Homestead Farm Market is only a couple years old.
The large building has a large gravel parking lot in front of it. J, L and I got there first and played outside a little bit waiting for our friends. Once they showed up, we went inside the building and were really surprised with what we found.
The Farm Market takes up the front of the building and it’s filled with locally grown and locally made products. The back of the Farm Market is where the cafe is.
Hazel’s Kitchen has the feeling of an old country restaurant although it’s pretty new. They have a small lunch menu of wraps, sandwiches, and salads all made with using farm fresh ingredients. There’s also a breakfast menu and a bakery menu which includes soft serve ice cream and Old Fashioned Fudge.
Ordering is done at the counter then they give you a number and your meal is brought out to you. J grabbed a couple menus off the counter and brought them back to the table we were taking over with diaper bags and high chairs so we could all decided on what to eat.
J and I went back up to order first. It’s not on the menu, but my choice was the Bacon Burger which happened to be the special that day. The fresh ground beef patty was served on a bakery fresh home made bun with two slices of bacon and cheese with lettuce, onion and tomato on the side. The burger was cooked well done which is a little over cooked for me, but it was still very delicious. The bread was fantastic and really was the standout of the sandwich. The meal came with fresh cut, skin-on fries which were awesome. That’s the only way I can describe them. Awesome. They were a little greasy…a little salty…and totally delicious.
J got the Grilled Chicken and Pecan Salad without the chicken. The mixed greens were topped with feta cheese, pecans, sunflower seeds and fresh blueberries. J loved the salad. Seriously..LOVED it. She added some dried blueberries which came complementary with each of the meals just to give it more blueberry taste. The salad was served with two slices of toasted bread on the side which she also loved. Fresh, home made bread that was toasted nice and crispy to use either as croutons or to eat on their own.
L’s lunch was the chicken strip meal. The three breaded pieces of fried chicken came with kettle chips on the side. L was a fan eating two and a half of the three strips. She tried sharing with the other little girl who was with us offering up a chicken strip for her PB&J but the other little girl wasn’t having it. L ended up with a quarter of her sandwich anyway before we were done with lunch and was a big fan of that too.
With a Coke, and Iced Tea, and a Kid’s Cup for water, our bill for lunch was $24. The meal was fantastic. The cafe was pretty full when we got there around 1:00 and stayed that way the whole time we were there. It looked there were several people who made a special trip just for lunch and I would say this is the kind of place where that’s a good idea. The cafe is really great, but for us, it was just a springboard for the main part of our day.
After lunch, I headed over to the cashier for the farm market to get a bucket to pick blueberries. I should have paid attention a little closer. The lady gave me directions to the U-Pick fields and only have paid attention. I figured it would be marked once we got out there, but it really wasn’t.
From the Farm Market, you head west down 14th Avenue. It’s a short distance so we decided to walk. There didn’t really appear to be any parking down there anyway, so I’m sure that’s what most people do.
I’m pretty sure the lady at the farm market told me the five rows closest to the railroad tracks were the U-Pick fields. Like I just mentioned, I figured it would be marked or there would be other people, but that wasn’t the case. There was no one out there and there was only a row of flags near the row that led me to think we were doing it right. If not, we were picking in the wrong field and no one stopped us.
L was happy to get and run up and down and down the rows, but she really wasn’t too in to picking. I eventually got her to hold the bucket, so J and I could pick blueberries and toss them in the bucket. The other people we were with were having a little more luck with their daughter as she seemed to get in to and would pick a few berries off and drop them in the bucket before running off and looking at what L was doing. We spent about a half hour taking pictures of L and picking about half a bucket of berries before heading back to the farm market to pay.
The half a bucket of blueberries cost us just under $4….a great price for an afternoon of family fun.
Stokes Homestead Farm Market was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Everything from the food to the berry picking was amazing and not at all what we were expecting when we left Kalamazoo. If it wasn’t for J having worked with one of the owner’s kids a few years ago, we probably would never have heard of the place….and what a great place we would have been missing….
Bacon Burger w/Fries
Grilled Chicken and Pecan Salad (without Chicken)
Chicken Strips w/Chips
