Apple Farm Tour
Irons Fruit Farm 1640 Stubbs Mill Road, Lebanon, Ohio 45036
Friday Sept. 21 at 10:00am
Homeschoolers of all ages
Cost: $4.00 a person including adults (please try to bring correct change for your family)

The walking tour lasts about 1 hour and includes information on growing apples & their uses. Attendees are guided through the process of how apples are picked, washed, sorted by size and placed into our large cold storage room. Then we walk then through the apple bagging room where apples are hand sorted and selected for quality control to be sold in our store. After the tour concludes, there is apple cider and an apple cider donut for all. Finish up your day with a visit to our friendly farm animals.
For directions and more information about Irons visit their web site http://www.ironsfruitfarm.com or call 513.932.2853.

Directions
From Cincinnati-East (I-71)
Take I-71 North, past Paramount's Kings Island to exit #32.
This exit is State Route 123, turn left towards Lebanon.
Follow St. Rt. 123 for 2.5-3.0 miles until you reach Stubbs Mill Road on your left (Bob Evans restaurant is on the corner).
Take Stubbs Mill Road about 1.5 miles and we are on the left.

This was probably the worst fruit farm tour we have ever been on, but the kids still enjoyed themselves and the small farm store had a wonderful variety of jams, jelly and butters. The woman that led the tour didn't seem to understand children very well, she would tell them they couldn't talk and that they had to be quiet, but then she would get mad that they didn't answer her enthusiastically enough in unison! The orchards were very sad, the trees certainly suffered from the odd weather we have had this year. The fruit cooler was horribly moldy and she kept insisting that it was at 34 degrees even though none of us were cold at all and asked Grant to go and read the thermometer...he said it was at 60 degrees and she says "your wrong", well, the adults all go and look at the thermometer and it is 60 degrees FAHRENHEIT, so I made a point to tell Grant that he was right and that it just proves that adults don't know everything, she couldn't tell the difference between Celsius and Fahrenheit temperature readings! Then when we were in the apple bagging room someone asked her what she thought about something and she said "I don't think about that. The owner here says if you have time to think you aren't working hard enough"....what a bunch of BULLSHIT.....I made sure to mention to the kids later in the van that what she said was ridiculous, that THINKING is what is important, not being some drone worker who never questions anything.

The farm animals looked so sad, I know the weather was unusually hot today for September (over 90 degrees) but they just didn't look happy!

The kids were really disappointed that the farm didn't have apple cider for us to drink (they gave us store bought apple juice instead) and that all the apples for sale in the shop were from other farms. I know the spring freeze really hurt the crops at the local farms, but how hard is it to go and get cider from the store to give to the kids? The donuts ROCKED, but the only other things that made the tour bearable was being in the presence of homeschooling friends and some wonderful old trees out front that the kids could climb in! Next year we will head back out to A&M Farms..it is a lot longer drive, but it is worth it!

Pictures to be posted soon!