Grandpa's Fresh Market - Albany

In June, while Scott was away, I had lunch with a lovely Relief Society sister at Ixtapa. She was telling me about all the things I needed to check out in the area, including the farmers market... "Well, and then of course there's Grandpa's," she said.

'Your grandpa?" I asked. No! A fruit stand between Lebanon and Albany on Highway 226 called Grandpa's Fresh Market. She told me how they had wonderful home grown produce, and some u-pick deals. They always keep their website updated with what's coming fresh from the garden. She also mentioned that there are other orchards and berry farms in that area, with raspberries in July and peaches in the latter part of the summer! That was enough of a teaser to get me driving over to investigate. At the time I was still interviewing for jobs and needed a distraction.  So after lunch I set out to find Grandpa's. 

It wasn't difficult to find. I took the first fork in the road from Lebanon is Hwy 226 going towards Crabtree, and there's a big sign at the fork for Grandpa's Fresh Market advertising what fruit is in season. This was actually around the time I had gone strawberry picking. Remember that awesome deal I got on strawberries? Well Grandpa's had u-pick strawberries for 10 cents/lb less than what I had found, and their strawberries were also great quality. I decided then that Scott and I would need to return to Grandpa's come blueberry season.

Fastforward to white coat ceremony reception - we ate THE MOST glorious blueberries I have EVER tasted!!! I cannot put enough excalamtion points on that sentence. I could have eaten the whole bowl like candy. I suspect that they were "Legacy" blueberries, maybe from this organic farm in Lebanon. I only suspect that because of the wording on their website... I didn't actually ask Western or their reception caterer, so don't take my word on that. In any case, it started the craving for blueberries, and I knew it was time for a trip down Hwy 226. So Scott and I invited his new med school friend Chase and his wife to FHE at Grandpa's where we planned to get our hands and lips as purple as possible.

Mmm... the trip was a success to say the least! Grandpa's had SO many blueberries, and u-pick was only $1.25/lb! Scott's already said that we need to go back for more, even though while we were there he couldn't imagine how we could use a whole bucket full.

Once we got home and we had blueberry pancakes, blueberries in cereal, talks of blueberry muffins on the weekends, not to mention just popping a handful of blueberries... our bucket was depleted before we knew it! We will definitely be finding ourselves some more berries quick and very likely returning to Grandpa's to do it!