Picking raspberries rocks. It’s a bit expensive ($30 a gallon) but when you think about the entertainment value and all the raspberries you can eat for free while you’re picking, it’s almost a justifiable cost. Then throw in fun with your family and endless photo opportunities and I’d say what a deal! Better than Disneyland or gambling in a casino and how much money do you waste doing that?

My mom has this idea that we should do a fun outing together as a family (not counting my dad who is a trucker and always on the road or Toby who works every single day) every month. So far we’ve got something fun every season except Spring. Or maybe I should say we’ve got fun things we do in Fall. Like our favorite pumpkin patch and Oak Glen for apples and cider. And now we have a new fun thing to do in summer. Picking raspberries!

I didn’t even know raspberries grew around here but they do. It’s only about 30 minutes up the mountains from my mom’s house and if you could just skip Beaumont I’d say it’s a lovely drive! I’m trying to talk my mom into buying property up there but I think she’d rather spend her money buying gifts for her grand daughters. It would be fun to have a bed and breakfast/farm or ranch up there. Just close enough to the city to do some shopping at the outlet mall and just far enough away to have some chickens and not have to look at anything but your own property.

Riley Farms is so photogenic. It would be great for a wedding or a family reunion. Everywhere you look you see green hills and sprawling pastures. They have goats and lazy dogs, apple trees and bales of hay to play on… it’s like being back in time. The buildings are all very rustic and the people who work there even dress up in period costume. The only thing not back in time are the real bathrooms with plumbing and flush toilets. I hate pit toilets.

We went on a Friday and there weren’t any crowds. It was just us and maybe a few other couples milling around picking copious amounts of ripe red raspberries. I can’t think of a single thing I can say bad about this experience. I’d recommend it to anyone willing to shell out that much money for raspberries. You can buy smaller containers but we wanted to really pick a lot of raspberries. When we got back to my mom’s house, she made three batches of delicious raspberry jam. Yum!