Russell Orchards

We brought the kids to Russell Orchards at Ipswich, Massachusetts on the 4th July. This is actually our second time at Russell Orchards. The last time we went was two years ago. Since that time, we have been to a few other pick-your-own orchards and petting farms (Drumlin Farm, Belkin Family Lookout Farm, Honey Pot Hill Orchards, etc) but find that Russell Orchards is still the best because there is no entrance fee, it is not too big a farm so not too much walking and they have their own winery :) Their apple cider donuts tasted better than Honey Pot Hill's.

There were ducks, geese, turkey and sheep roaming freely just behind the farm store. Inside the barn, there are pigs, goats, horses, chickens, rabbits, etc.

As expected, Sonya ran to me as soon as one of the ducks went towards her. Clara was fine at first but when they got too close, she got a little scared too :)

We went there mainly for the pick-your-owns since Sonya liked it. The strawberries and raspberries were available for picking.

We all went into the fields initially but we thought it was too hot for Clara so Justin brought her under the shade where she ended up playing with pebbles while Sonya and I picked the berries.

The strawberries were rather small in size but they were ripe. We found an odd shaped one shown in the photo above :)

There were also a lot of beetles at the raspberry plants and mosquitoes everywhere!

We picked 2 pint-size containers of raspberries and 1 larger container of strawberries. We also bought half a dozen of yummy apple cider donuts (Clara liked it but Sonya didn't), 5 bottles of wine flavored with different varieties of fruits (blueberry, cherry, peach, etc) and a bottle of dangelion flavored wine.

Sonya was so tired after the trip that she fell asleep in the car with a piece of bread still in her mouth! When she woke up, she continued chewing and ate it :) hahaha...