Surprise! Weekends and holidays just became more interesting. Snohomish
County has approximately 111 commercial farms awaiting your visit. These farms, with their rolling, scenic
landscapes, cater to people of all ages from a variety of fresh, tasty produce
to soft, luxurious Alpacas. Snohomish County offers so many great opportunities such as this to get out and enjoy
the beauty of this land.
A visit to the farm offers spectacular views of a snaking and
reflective Snohomish River that rolls up into acres of fall colored, earth-toned
vegetation which blankets the earth to its chiseled mountain ranges. The horizon and the rich, Snohomish sky,
flooded in glorious blue with strokes of white stained clouds.
This past weekend I visited The Farm at Swan’s Trail. They can be found on Twitter as “SwansTrailFarms”
and Facebook as “The Farm @ Swans Trail”. Their website only connects with a Facebook
page, so I am not sure how official their Twitter account is. In either case, I feel like it would
be a good idea for them and other farms to experiment with other social media
networks, having a larger digital footprint wouldn’t hurt.
If you visit their website, you will see that they provide
you with a great deal of information about the farm, this they do well. It’s an excellent, potentially cheap getaway for the
family if done right. Parking is free,
no entrance fee, free hayride, and it doesn’t cost anything to walk around and
take pictures of happy people on a beautiful day, but this is too easy.
The hayride will shuttle you around to the maze or the apple
orchard, once there you will have no other option but to purchase one or the
other. I didn’t go through the maze, but
I did hunt for apples. Finding any
unpicked apples was quite difficult, but that’s what happens when you arrive
late. All the good picks were good and
gone prior to 2pm. That didn’t stop me
from enjoying the beautiful day or exploring other food options available.
The one hole that I saw on their website was food pictures
and an explanation on how to order, because there is a process.
Their order placing system requires visitors to pay first, then
pick-up, like a fast food restaurant.
The difference, when paid, visitors receive a laminated construction
paper cutout thingy with a sketched picture of their ordered item on it. They go to the concession stand, identified
by an overhead sign, and pickup their premade order.
I ordered two meal items.
A Corn Dog with no side and the BBQ Pork sandwich meal, sided with
baked beans and coleslaw. The food was
good, in my opinion, way overpriced, but hey, the farm made up for that by
having “free” things to do.
The donut was pretty darn good. The surface was a bit oily, but once the
center hits your tongue, the balanced cinnamon-apple flavor sends your head and
tongue spinning for more.
If you are every in Snohomish, The Farm at Swan’s Trail is
one of those places to explore. They
have just the right balance of fun and value.