A favorite activity for our family when our kids were young was to head out to a farm, like a pumpkin patch, corn maze, orchard, or Christmas tree farm. We lived in Ventura County, back when there was still a lot of local agriculture close to our home, so it was fairly easy to do.
We recently traveled through Bakersfield and decided to visit the Murray Farm’s Big Red Barn. The farm features a store, simple restaurant, self-pick orchard, and a kid’s play area.
The Murray family has a long been involved in farming, going back several generations. Steve Murray founded this farm, including fruit trees and several hundred beehives, and over the years added a variety of organically grown fruit crops. The family started selling their produce at a roadside stand and farmers markets and as is obvious, they have been very successful. Today the farm has mixture of traditional and specialty crops, mostly self-pick but with harvested fruit also available for sale.
We looked around outside for a few minutes, then headed into the Red Barn where we browsed through the large assortment of fresh and preserved fruit and vegetables available for sale. We bought some jam, orange-blossom honey, pickled and dehydrated preserves for ourselves and as handy gifts for family and friends. Take a look at some of these tasty items on the store shelves:
(an amazing assortment of jams)
(locally grown wines)
(Orange honey — has a unique flavor if you’ve never tried it)
(great assortment of fresh fruit for sale)
One of our reasons for visiting was because the Murray Farms food counter sold “Okie pies”, which I’d never tried before. They basically are fry pies — stuffed empanada-like pastries which can either be sweet (apple, cherry, peach) or savory (chicken, carne asada, ground beef). These were apparently introduced to the San Joaquin valley by Oklahoma farmers fleeing the dust-bowl conditions of the 1930s. And they are good.
(Okie pies)
Looks like fun!