Scott's Yankee Farmer — Attraction in East Lyme

This place was five stars until a few years ago. I’m not sure if a different family member took the reigns or what, but charging 2 dollars a person for the privilege of picking your own fruit and then giving you a laundry list of rules to follow like “no sampling” and “pick up apples that you accidentally knock off and pay for them” sound like they were written by an absolute looney. Seriously, go to the fields and look at the plethora of warning signs like you are some trespassing wild animal. 2 dollars a person doesn’t sound like a lot unless you want to take all your kids, then it’s 12 bucks to just step in the fields. After we did it with strawberries and realized the field should have been closed a week earlier as there was nothing left, we left with the most expensive pint of rotting strawberries we’ve ever bought since you don’t get admission back if there’s nothing left to pick. Their donuts are never warm anymore and are still frozen when you get them and the flies sit on their vegetables inside all day. Thousands of flies. I drive to Bishop’s in Guilford now where they treat me like a customer and not a possible fruit thief and actually welcome...

Okay. You could go to a really nice dinner in coastal Connecticut, or you could drive into Scott's, see what vegetables are looking. The roundest, fattest, and most colorful, throw it in a frying pan with some garlic, escapes and onions, save a ton of money, and eat just as well. The produce here is always fresh, sometimes freshly pulled out of the ground within the hour.

The corn, which greets you as you walk in the door, is otherworldly. It's called salt and butter corn, but the miracle of it is, you don't need to add either. My cooking companion says, I could eat that corn for every meal for the rest of my life. Seasonally, they also have a fruit picking patch, but I should probably save that for another review.

When entering this part of the world, as time allows, we've made it accustomed to set our destination, instead of wherever we're staying, to Scott's, and stop there first.

Also, make sure you grab one of those pies. They're huge, and filling, and might last you a couple meals... If you have that kind of restraint. In the words of my second favorite FBI special agent,...

I was pleasantly surprised by this place. My daughter (8) and I went for blueberry picking. We were not sure where to go but the friendly staff in the store helped. The store also has some delicious sauces to purchase that they make. You drive past the shop on the left and there will be signs of where to go for the picking. You park to get a basket and then the nice girl points where to drive next. It was a pretty drive through the orchards to get to the blueberries. There was PLENTY to pick. They were in a screened in area so my daughter felt safe from bugs. Once you are done picking, you drive back to the booth and pay. Behind the booth is a flower garden. They will give you shears to cut your own flowers. There is a decent selection of beautiful flowers. My daughter was scared of the bees but still managed to cut 5 flowers. That was a cool experience for her as well. With the flowers and a decent amount of blueberries we spent less than 5 dollars! We would go...