Farm Shopping

Just when i finally drifted off into the perfect morning sleep, my phone began to ring what sounded like - ungodly loud. NOTE TO SELF : for the millionth time do not leave your cellphone next to your pillow before bed.

With the sleep still in my eyes, I begrudgingly grabbed my cellphone in the hopes to silence the call but as I further opened my eyes I saw that it was my mother calling me. Now when your parents are past the age of 65, you try to never ignore their calls - especially the early ones in case of emergency…..but thankfully there was no real emergency. It was just my quirky, brilliant mother calling to tell me way too much information at 7 am so I abruptly stopped her mid explantation and told her I had to call her back as I needed time to wake up. 

No need to venture into why this was not necessarily something random or shocking to hear from my mother- just know that I accepted because it was something she was genuinely excited to go and do with me.

Upon my mothers arrival, I entered the passengers seat and was immediately greeted by bags upon bags of fresh snacks and food items and my mothers loud, jolly greeting. Once I talked my mother out of taking a 12 hour road trip up north - we began our journey to the Okechobee/Homestead area which was a 1 1/2 hour journey each way at the most. Being that my mother hadn't  selected exact properties to look at, I was gifted the privilege to designate which properties we would visit.

After seeing blank landscapes, open farmland, and horribly located destinations, we finally stumbled across what looked like a fun place to stop- The Redland Ranch. I’m a sucker for any place that advertises fresh produce so they had me at “Fresh Fruit”. Upon parking we were greeted by wandering chickens and rustic decor. Immediately I grabbed my mom for a photo opp and began to explore.

The best part about Redland Ranch are the local, authentic, homemade honeys, jams, sauces, and baked bread. I had to buy a few to take home, so delicious, particularly the Guava Jam- YUM!

The most entertaining part of this all was my toy poodle attempting to befriend an unfriendly chicken….if only I captured that on video. Overall it was an experience.

And even though my mother did not find her dream farmland on this trip- we found a great, unique location for local goods!