A trip to Murray Family Farms – Bakersfield, CA
Bakersfield explorations continue!
It’s been averaging a cool 98º around here at midday. And yet for some reason, Matt and I decided to cram our weekend with approximately ALL of the outdoor activities. The longer our exposure to direct and unapologetically brutal sunlight, the better! I love sunshine and I LOVE summer, but this is… rough.
We’ve been wanting to check out some U-Pick farms around town since before we even moved here. A few weeks ago I got a heads up about a Sunflower photo contest they were doing so we decided to finally check it out.
We explored, sweat, picked some fruit, sweat, walked through the sunflower fields and then… sweat some more. 30 minutes in this heat is not a joke. I chugged a bottle of water afterwards like my life depended on it. (It did??) Heat be damned – we still had a great time! We practically had the place to ourselves. Probably because, oh I don’t know, it was a jillion degrees outside? So bonus, ya know?
The true true best part of it all was when we took our nearly sun-stroked selves over to sit in some shade. A very kind man struck up a conversation with us. I casually asked “oh, do you work around here?” Well, umm, he did guys. It ended being being Steve Murray, the owner of the farms and all around cool guy! He chatted with us for a long while. Matt and both walked away so impressed by his deep knowledge of the area, the land, the history of the land and farming conservation and sustainability practices. He was a serious joy to talk to. We learned a TON and I didn’t pass out of heat stroke!
So Steve and family, thank you for your wonderful farms, your gorgeous sunflowers and for taking the time to chat with two sweaty, dehydrated kids from Chicago who underestimated the Bakersfield sun. We’ll be back in October for the cool weather and Fall veggies. Yum!
