Schnepf Farms

Fifty-seven people from Sunscape went on a tour of Schnepf Farms by Queen Creek, AZ.

Yep, we went for a ride on the train. Ok, so it's small scale. Nolan and I just barely fit in a seat together.

Running alongside one of their small canals.

They have a u-pick vegetable garden. Only 6 acres.

The wheels sure squealed going around the curves.

They even had a covered bridge.

Some of the varieties of peaches were blooming. We had several nights of hard freezes a couple weeks before this and some of the early bloom varieties lost their blossoms.

Fry's Grocery Stores were having a commercial filmed while we were there. Yep, they hung oranges on oleander bushes. LOL

After the train ride we went on a hay ride around the farm. Man those bales were hard.

They even had a herd of deer. Course they magically transformed into reindeer at Christmas time.

The farmhouse where the present owner was raised is now the wedding center.

They also grew apples which were in bloom.

Peach blossoms. They do not have a fragrance. 85% of the Schnepf Farms peach crop is picked by people coming to the farm. The other 15% is used by the farm to make their peach produces that they sell in their gift shop.

Queen Creek Olive Mill

I organized a tagalong to go on a tour of Queen Creek Olive Mill and we ended up with 57 people attending. The tour consisted of an explanation of how the farm started, information on the different types of olives and what what grown on the farm. Then we went into this tent where we were told how the olives were pressed and aged to make the olive oil.

The walls were covered in panels explaining the production of olive oil.

The photo at the bottom of this panel shows how slow the oil is processed at peak capacity. It takes 50 lbs of olives to make one gallon of oil.

They had four different varieties of olives for us to try. I'm not an olive fan.