Strawberry Festival @ Alstede Farms

Strawberries are in season again! We decided to drive out to the countryside last Saturday to Alstede Farms out in Chester, NJ for the Annual Strawberry Harvest Festival. The festival runs for two weekends, starting from June 13. We decided to go for the first day (a bit kiasu :p) so that we will get the best harvest and not the left over strawberries. Alstede Farms is about 80 years old and has a daily early morning harvest of over 100 different home grown fruits, vegetables, and flowers.

The drive out to the country was really pleasant. It took us about an hour to get there, since it's almost hitting the Pennsylvanian border. The sky was really overcast and there was a slight drizzle in certain areas that we drove past. We were praying hard in the car that the rain would hold until we were done with our strawberry pickin'!

When we arrived at the farm, we were really glad that it wasn't raining yet! :D We really didn't know that to expect ( in terms of the amount of people at the festival and parking) but we were pleasantly surprised that there was ample free parking at the back of the farm.

After parking, we headed straight to the "pick your own" check in counter. You can buy containers for the strawberries here. Only 10 cents for pint & quart boxes and 75 cents for the large flats. We bought one large flat :D Strawberries are $2.29/pound. It's a little bit more expensive then those you can find in the supermarkets (strawberries are on sale in our local grocery store for $1.59/pound), but hey, you cannot get them fresher than this! So, I guess the pricing is pretty reasonable. You can also buy tickets for all kinds of rides and kids activities here.

We started the long walk towards the Strawberry Fields. The first patch that we saw were pretty disappointing. There were not many strawberries left. The workers at the fields told us that if we were to walk further away from the main farm area, we could find bigger and nicer strawberries. So, we continued walking.

Alstede Farms has about 10 acres of strawberry fields, so there are a lot of strawberries to go around! Ahhh, at last we found a nice strawberry patch. Beautiful and ripe red strawberries! Yuummmyy!

So we started picking...

...and pickin'....

...and at last we almost filled our box. Well, it wasn't really fully yet so we spent a little bit more time pickin' more! :P

After we felt that we picked enough strawberries, it was the loooong looong loooooooong walk back to the main farm area.

Of course we could have just paid $2 to ride on the hayride but we noticed that only families with little kids rode on the hayride :P Anyways, it's good exercise to walk..haha!

Alstede Farms also has a large collection of barnyard animals. There were horses, sheep, billy goats, donkeys, rabbits...just to name a few. You can buy carrots ($1 per pack) to feed the animals too. They also have a whole lot of activities for the kids. From hay pyramids, a moon bounce to pony and tractor train rides!

We brought our strawberries to the check out counter to weigh it and also to pay. It was just a little over $9! Not too bad for such a big box of strawberries!!

After keeping the strawberries in the car, we headed over to the main barn area to look at the fresh produce. Alstede Farms grow their own vegetables and fruits. They also have a large selections of home made chutneys, dressings, jams, marinades, sauces and pickled vegetables. You can also buy wine from the nearby Four Sisters winery that is on display at the shop. Oh, before I forget, Alstede Farms also make their own candy and ice cream!! Yums!

There is a very impressive garden center by the side of the barn. They had all kids of flowers, vegetable plants as well as fruit trees for sale. Most of the flowers were in full bloom, so it was really pretty to look at. Too bad we live in an apartment, if not, I would have bought the whole garden center!!

All this walking around and picking strawberries made us hungry. So, we headed out to the Hen House food cart located on the grounds of the farm to sample some home made strawberry treats. We ordered a strawberry milkshake ($4.95) and strawberry shortcake ($3.95). They had all kinds of strawberry treats as well as German food like potato pancakes and bratwurst for sale too. Of course you can also get the regular hot dogs, cheese burgers and chicken sandwiches if you like.

The strawberry shortcake was soooo yummy. It was really the authentic type of strawberry shortcake, with the cake tasting a little bit like scones or biscuits. The milkshake was really good too. Huge chunks of strawberries, really really good!

After our snack, we decided that it was time to head home. As we pulled out from the driveway of the farm, the rain starting to come down. Not just a light drizzle but really heavy rain. Looks like God really answered our prayer and held the rain until we were safely in the car, on our way home! What a perfect way to end a perfect day of picking our own strawberries.

Note: To view more of the photos that we took at the strawberry festival, click here