Mingodale Farm, Parkton

Dear Blackberries. I love you. Thank you for loving me back.

I love farms and fresh fruit and local produce. I love it a lot. I used to work at Misty Valley Farms, a fruit stand on the corner of Falls and Shawan Roads in Hunt Valley, for a couple of summers and I was able to eat my fair share of local and fresh goodness EVERY SINGLE DAY. In fact, I'm going to toot my own horn here and say that I was a great sales person because I would spend the whole day eating all our produce and raving about it- so people would buy it!

That being said, I am also trying to be more aware of where my food is coming from. I can't buy a lemon or lime from Maryland, but if I can buy some fruit that we grow locally, I'll make an effort to do so. I visit the website http://www.pickyourown.org/ for farms in our area that allow you to pick your own fruit. I use that website a lot during Fall when I want to find a great pumpkin patch.

However, this time it led me to Mingodale Farm. It is SO CLOSE TO MY HOUSE. Ok, 15 minutes away by car on 83North, but still really close. It's this wonderfully small farm that has a couple rows of produce and a small little shack where they sell their stuff. They were selling all local blackberries (which I picked myself for $3.95/lb), garlic, onions, green beans, plums, tomatoes, squash etc etc etc. They also sell flowers that you can cut yourself, which makes the little farm look beautiful when you pull up to it, and herbs.

I am VERY excited about my purchase of honey that they make at the farm. I bought the wildflower honey. I am increasingly concerned about the tragic and curious decline of honeybees, so anything I can do to help them is my number one priority! I'll let you know how that turns out.

Fruit picking is always fun, especially when the fruit is ripe and ready for the picking! The blackberries were delicious. I had them alone and they were yummy and with some chocolate chip pancakes another day, and that was also VERY yummy :)

I have yet to try my other goodies, but I'm sure they are excellent. The lady in charge of the farm was extremely helpful and super nice, which makes me want to go back as much as I can. It's funny how something as subjective as personality can make a loyal customer!

Mingodale Farm

17201 Masemore Road,
Parkton, MD
410-357-0403
http://www.mingodalefarm.com/