Best strawberry picking that can’t be beat! Go to SoTex Farms in Poteet!
Y’all, I have Seasonal Affective Disorder. Big time. Not exactly the SAD diagnosis you may be familiar with that implies having the blues from wintertime grays and rainy days. It’s more of a “Parenting Season” Affective Disorder. This parent SAD. The cure? Strawberry picking. But I’ll get to that in a minute.
To skip straight to the juicy goodness, you can read the in-depth review of our experience at SoTex Farms here. Or jump straight to Pros and Cons.
More about my SADness. This whole effing “season”. Potty-training limbo. Forever and a day of hell. Power struggles… And not just from my toddlers, who barely have the excuse themselves. Listen, I can handle suffering. Easy, AS LONG AS IT FEELS PURPOSEFUL.
It feels that for, at least the last year…
Not One of Our Children is GROWING.
Nova still doesn’t sleep half the time. Only now, she’s begging for snuggles through tears. It kills me. We soaked up the snuggles for a while. I mean, she’s never been super affectionate, so it feels like a treat. But then, we noticed the trend. Ultimately disruptive to her sleep and back to sleep-training we go.
Power-struggling Orson. Where do pee and poop go? Orson can tell you all-day, everyday, all the toddler-level minutiae of potty practice. He’s shown he’s capable. Then, he’ll say “Go potty!” Okay, Orson, to the potty we go! “No. All done, potty.” Umm, okayyy, well… Nova has to go, so here’s your potty if you need to go. Then, he pees on himself two feet from it. Fffffff….
And the teenager…the communication is like pulling teeth. I’ll leave it at that.
Nathan and I are in the trenches. Being in this season, nothing matters except for your parental f*ck-ups. Forget the patience, compassion, grace, fun, memory-making, activities. I put Orson, who just peed all over our barstool, onto his potty and am met with his cutest smirk: “Mama is super fwustwayted.”
Ya think?! But that is all that matters in this parenting season. The moments we lose our cool. The times we get flustered and “fwustwayted”. And you know what? I think a lot of it stems from cabin fever. So, it’s time to shake up the routine. Potty-training or not, we gotta GTFO of here pronto. Before Mama goes way past “fwustwayted”.
Enter strawberry-picking.
Going Rural Instead of Postal
Along with Oh Crap! Potty Training by Jamie Glowacki (which is about the only thing giving us potty hope right now), I also just recently finished reading another awesome book: There’s No Such Thing As Bad Weather by Linda McGurk.
This personal narrative (paired with a lot of supporting research) effectively stresses the importance of time spent outdoors, especially in terms of how it effects childhood development. How exploration and outdoor play can instill independence, creativity, and resilience in our children.
I HIGHLY recommend this book. It was an insightful and engaging read that I struggled to put down.
I digress…
The older I get, the more I crave time spent outdoors. I want my kids to revel in outside frivolities, roll in some dirt, maybe even eat a little (build that biome, baby!), and really earn that bedtime bubble bath.
I’ve noticed as of late how even just a few morning minutes spent outside with the toddlers can defuse most tantrums. We reset so quickly with a little nurturing warmth and sunlight. I’m bumping that Vitamin D like a drug, people, and it works. Maybe it’s so effective in resetting my kids’ moods simply because of how transformative it is for my own.
With this theory in mind, I was hungering for an out-of-the-norm, outdoor adventure that we could all get into and enjoy. I really couldn’t think of a better seasonal springtime activity to get us outside and refreshed than strawberry picking. ‘Tis the season!
But, where at?
So, living in NBTX, there are closer farms that I’d still love to eventually check out. However, though I don’t fault local farms for doing this, it’s hard finding locales that don’t nickel-and-dime offered activities. We’ve been to farms like this for Fall festivals, and we have a reasonably good (if not expensive) time. But that’s not what I was after.
I wanted a low-stim, low-stress, grounded and earthy, engaging and inexpensive activity. I wanted strawberry picking. Not balloon animals, face painting, pay-to-feed petting zoos, or insert-any-other-money-grab tactic here. Maybe another day. Not today. We didn’t need an amusement park. We needed to find a farm…
Then I remembered…
SoTex Farms!!!
We’d been at our neighbor Ed’s 83rd birthday party (whom I baked my Caramel Rum Bundt Cake for), when another neighbor brought him the reddest, most succulent-looking batch of strawberries I’d probably ever seen. We tried one, and sure enough, a perfect crunch, refreshing, sweet juice, pure delight in berry form. POW!
Question asked, question answered: she’d gone strawberry picking at SoTex Farms.
And now, so would we.
Stellar SoTex Strawberry Picking
Pulling up in Poteet, TX to SoTex Farms after an hour and twenty minute drive with two toddlers… First impressions, I’ll be honest. I wanted rural, sure. But, first glance, there didn’t seem to be much to look at. The strawberry picking “You-Pick-It” field is a pretty small one, overall. Parking immediately on site is also limited.
Orson and Nova were excitedly chattering away about strawberry picking in their new rainboots, and each took turns at least attempting to use the available restroom on-site. A time or two, Orson even found that he could “make mud” by peeing in some dirt by the car when the one bathroom wasn’t available. And he stayed dry the whole trip! Win!
Anyway…
It didn’t take long before the fresh air, the strawberry picking, the rural atmosphere all blended into just the earthy tonic I so desperately needed. The people staffing the little “shop” on site were all incredibly friendly and welcoming. Even gave some friendly advice to remove sunglasses so as to not distort the actual color of a strawberry we were picking.
The strawberries available for picking were gorgeous, by and large. Sure, there were some here and there that had gotten overripe or sunbaked or bug-nibbled (pesticide-free, yay!), but the selection was still marvelous. And CHEAP!
We opted for a $25 half-flat, and it was still, far and away, wildly cheaper than any you could find at HEB for the quality. You can also grab a pint for $5, a full-flat for $40, or go for broke and fill your container of choice at $4/lb. When we went, they were also offering 5-gallon buckets for strawberry picking (intended for making jams/wine) at $40 once full.
The value really can’t be beat.
Toddlers will be toddlers, and they needed redirection from time to time. Whining, wandering, fussing could easily be shifted to exclamations of wonder and curiosity at the sight of Woollybear caterpillars (which I now know are totally harmless and totally adorable)!
We’d point out a radiantly red, ripe strawberry right for the picking and let them take turns twisting and plucking the tastiest finds. More than once, they’d sneak a bite of a gloriously juicy strawberry. Before long, Nova looked like she’d massacred quite a few. As a matter of fact, we caught her, seconds too late, chowing down on a couple rotten ones.
Build that biome, right?
They were going. to. town. Treating strawberry picking (and eating) like a very special treat. I got to relish the fact that it was an enriching, hands-on, agro-ecology lesson for my toddlers. Getting to explore the rows of strawberries (SoTex Farms boasts 5 different varieties this season!), hunt for the juiciest, reddest ones, find all the cute caterpillars that we could…
It really was a very special treat for us.
And with our massive haul of crunchy, juicy, crimson berries, we made a “special treat” day of it. Nathan and I made scrumptious strawberry shortcakes, set some strawberries aside for munching, and I oven-dehydrated the rest.
So, so delightful. Fresh from the farm. Joy to be savored in every bite.
But Wait! There’s More…
SoTex Farms offers so much more than mere strawberry picking. They offer MAGIC in the form of a baby deer. A baby at the time of writing this, anyway.
At the back of the strawberry picking field, at the fence, you can admire some farm animals! During our visit, we made the acquaintance of cows, a couple of feisty emus, and an AWWDORABLE, fuzzy-antlered fawn. Orson and Nova were absolutely captivated.
Psh, so were Mama and Papa, who am I kidding?
We hand-fed a few strawberries to all of the friendly creatures, which was PURE MAGIC. Even the slobberfest of a cow I fed. An absolutely magical memory made thanks all to SoTex Farms and their stellar strawberry picking.
Beyond strawberry picking, they also sell a variety of strawberry goods, like frozen strawberry fruit pops, strawberry quick bread, jams like “strawberry margarita” (YUM…). SoTex Farms also posts about chick and duckling sales from time to time! Just throwing that out there if you’ve got the interest. We, however, have a dog, so….
All this to say, SoTex Farms has won a spot on our list of seasonal traditions from now until our nomadic sailing life begins. Highly recommend you check them out. The strawberries themselves are worth the drive, but the strawberry picking experience truly made it the greatest pleasure for us and our toddlers.
We’ll be back.
A Fun Festival for All
Quick final note:
According to the SoTex Facebook page, there won’t be anymore “You-Pick-It” strawberry picking until after the 77th Annual Strawberry Festival in Poteet, TX. This Festival takes place April 12th-14th, and sounds like a really good time.
A lot of love, time, effort, energy, and volunteer hours go into this Festival every year, since it serves as a massive economic boon for Poteet. Per the Festival website:
“For over 77 years, serving our community has been what drives the countless volunteer hours and hard work that go into the Poteet Strawberry Festival. It has been a crucial source of funding for scholarships, farmers, non-profits, and small businesses”
There’s to be a carnival, a myriad of vendor booths, SO MANY STRAWBERRY GOODS, live music, rodeo, and a wide assortment of other family-friendly activities to take part in.
So, get outside, and support small-town America. Farmers. Students. Small Businesses.
And strawberries.
Pick of the Crop: SoTex Farms
Pros:
Low-stim. Earthy and grounded strawberry picking without all of the money-grabbing fluff of “amusement park farms”. Gorgeous and TASTY strawberries, multiple varieties available. Competitive pricing. Inexpensive for the HIGH VALUE and quality of these strawberries. Which I can safely assume are pesticide-free.
Sweet, memorable interactions with friendly farm animals. Really great fun overall. We spent about an hour and a half strawberry picking and engaging with the critters, but it absolutely flew by. Family-friendly. Minimal grousing from the toddlers, which is a plus anywhere!
SoTex Farms also sells a variety of artisanal goods, as well as some animals (like chicks and ducklings)! Farm tours are $5 per person. No entry fee for “You Pick It” strawberry picking; just pay for what you pick.
Open 7 days a week. Strawberry picking offered on a seasonal basis, takes a short break for the Poteet Strawberry Festival, April 12th-14th.
Long and short of it, SoTex Farms was a breath of fresh air for this Mamasaur and her family. We LOVED it.
Cons:
Tough to really think of any! Best I can come up with?
Only one bathroom on-site. Parking is limited. And I think it’s pretty safe to say, SoTex strawberries are pesticide-free (which we consider a MASSIVE PRO). There are bugs on this here FARM on these here strawberries… If that bothers you, maybe just make the drive to grab some pre-picked ones. SoTex. Strawberries. Are. Worth. It.
I also wish they had a website! However, their Facebook page is well-managed and frequently updated! Make sure you check out SoTex Farms on Facebook. Setting up an appointment is recommended and really easy to do on FB.