Sunny Ridge Strawberry Farm

Sunny Ridge Strawberry Farm {website} was a last minute inclusion into our itinerary . We had gone to Blue Hills Berries and Cherries as Bielet really wanted to try her hand at picking blueberries (her fruit of the moment). Alas, the picking was closed for the day because driving there had taken longer than expected, and we had to disappoint the wee one. Being the good daddy, ZX googled, found Sunny Ridge for the alternative of picking strawberries, and decided it would be our first stop the next day. What Bielet wants, Bielet gets. (Not really lah, just this instance.) We went on to Ashcombe Gardens & Lavender Gardens as both the farm and gardens are in Mornington Peninsula, hence the same attire (if you notice, anyway).

Since ZX had his share of fun picking strawberries with Bielet in Hong Kong, I got to be co-picker this time round! Bieny was in my tummy back then, and unfortunately, she just grazed around the farm again this time. LOL.

First up, the ground rules:

The punnet is so large, you won't need to try to squash in more strawberries to get your worth in entry fee!

Important: "pick those that look ready to eat". That means..............

Now that we've got that out of the way, let's go a-picking!

The better picking spot was towards the end of the designated section, but there were so many people there, we just stuck to the less crowded end.

Bielet was a pro at picking her strawberries (her fave fruit before blueberries came into the picture)

Bieny not very happy that she wasn't part of the action

So she got two strawberries!

Bielet proudly displaying her largest pick of the day. How enormous is that?!

Bielet and I had to pay for our picking, hence the two punnets she's holding. 

After all the hard work, we headed to the cafe for some nice, relaxing ice cream!

Seeing the giant strawberries get dipped in chocolate make me droooooooooooooooooool

She chose the flavours and watched intently as it was scooped out

Everything here is of gargantuan proportions!

Pleased as punch to have an ice cream! This is a selfie, btw.

Also snapped by Bielet

As is this artistic looking snap of the juicy strawberries!

Judging from the hoardes of people at Sunny Ridge, this place needs no introduction. Locals were there to stock up on the fresh picks, jams and wines, while tourists indulged in picking the strawberries by their own efforts. The farm grounds are large enough so you won't be elbowing your fellow picker, but the shop is a little claustrophobic. I wanted to buy more produce but was slightly afraid the girls would knock over the jars, so we went to plonk our behinds at the cafe instead. All in all, a great excursion out. We were eating strawberries the rest of our holiday, even after leaving aside one punnetful for ZX's friends (whom we met on the last night)!

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WHW

Polka dotted H&M jumpsuit with inner Fox Kids tank

WTW

Pink jumpsuit from Osh Kosh (gifted)

[Read the rest of our Melbourne adventures here.]