Picking Grapes And Trawling Markets At Lourensford

Our kids seem to have caught the bug of trying new things all the time.  I’m pretty sure that we’re raising children with the wanderlust gene.

Which is TOTES our fault, but you know what?  I love it.  I love that they are just as excited to venture to new places as we are.  That they are (usually) keen to walk around and check out the full extent of what we’ll be doing at this new place.  Their awe as they see new things, try new foods and just generally push themselves out of their comfort zone.

You’d think I’d be leading up to a post on like, bungy jumping or something right?  But nope.  All we did was to go to Lourensford Wine Farm in Somerset West and pick grapes for the first time.  Isn’t it just heart warming to see them get excited about things that we may take for granted?  Kyla was so excited that on the Saturday night she prayed:

Kyla prayed last night, “God, thank you that you made grapes & that we can pick them! I’m so excited because I’ve never done that before!”

— Cindy Alfino (@CindyAlfino) February 19, 2017

I mean, can you even?  My heart popped a little.

So at Lourensford on Sunday they had Hanepoot Grape picking* and a really cool market.  It’s ideal if you can get there in the beginning (around 10am) and chill there for the morning.  We were at church that morning (Seth is now playing in the band and hot damn, if he doesn’t look like a babe standing up there playing guitar), so we got there for the tail end of the market.  But even at 1pm when we arrived, things were still pumping.

*Edited to note that the grape picking is only once a year – so you have to follow along on their social pages to see when that weekend is!

Because the grape picking closed at 2pm, we thought we’d head there first.

Now, we weren’t sure where to go and didn’t realise that the grape picking was not near the market.  Like not in the least.  So parking at the main parking and then walking had us all quite windswept and a bit lost.  But we eventually found it, grabbed our little scissors and headed out on the tractor to go and pick some grapes!

It was quite windy that day so there was a lot of sand floating around – Knox couldn’t handle it, but I couldn’t help giggling at his funny little face.  He spent the whole drive like this – hardly looking at anything.  Poor thing.

Then it was time to pick!  The kids enjoyed searching through all the vines to choose bunches that they would want to pick and eat.  We have so many grapes now that we don’t know what to do with them!  Although I’ve considered making my own wine, I might just leave that up to the actual professionals.

By the time we were done our tummies were rumbling so we headed to the market.

Take a moment to think of every food type that you have ever wanted.  I’ll wait.  OK, now that you are sufficiently hungry, I can almost guarantee that you will find that food at this market.  Pizzas, ciders, sushi, ribs, wings, burgers, curries, wraps, ice cream, cupcakes.  Err’thang.  There’s also a lot of clothing, accessories, decor and other markety things.

The kids helped me photograph this part of the afternoon.  In case you were wondering whose feet those were.

After that you can head over to the cellars and do a tasting of the different wines that they make on the farm.  But by that time, the kids were a bit over it so we grabbed a bottle of the merlot and made one last stop…

We try really hard not to over-indulge our kids with sweet treats (mostly because they get lots from the grannies, aunties etc).  I feel like I never get to treat them.  Which is probably why they look as excited as they do about these ice creams!

I’m not going to lie, it’s kind of weird that it looks like Ri is making out with that ice cream 

It was a really lovely afternoon.  Somerset West is such a great place – it feels like you’re away and you’ve only just gone like 30 minutes down the road!  Have you been here before?  Which stall was your favourite?

We’ve also been in this area before if you want to see what else you can do when you stay/visit here.