Category: Orlando

If you have ever been to Southern Hill Farms, you know they have different events and pick your own fruit events throughout the different seasons. Right now, its strawberry picking season! If you have never been to the farm, now is the time, there is no fruit better than freshly picked!

The farm is on roughly 120 acres of land, and depending which way you come in, the entrance is a long clay road. There is plenty of parking available, and for the strawberry picking, you do not have to pay to park like during other events there where they have more going on.

When you first enter Southern Hill Farms there is an employee letting you know how everything works and giving you directions to the strawberry field and the barn. The barn is where you can go up to the air stream they have parked, and purchase their drinks and donuts that are made right there on the farm, and yes right now there are strawberry donuts and drinks to enjoy! They also have their market open, the eatery and beer shed.

They also have a play area for the children to play and plenty of photo opportunities with signs and the ones you put your head through the holes to become different characters like snowmen and such. They actually just announced on their Instagram page, which I will link below, that they will be opening their kids zone back up for the season on weekends. There will be a festival swing, jump pillows, a giant slide, obstacle course, sports game and farm wagon rides available in one all-inclusive wrist band for purchase.

On approaching the strawberry fields, you walk up to the check-in desk where the employee there lets you know how it all works and hands you their box. She told us which side the farm has been using and which sides have more fruit so you can start there. They ask that you pull the strawberry with one hand while holding the vine with the other to protect pulling the plant out of its delicate row.

The field was pretty large and as you can see, so it’s very easy to social distance from other groups. There are signs that ask that you wear a mask where social distancing isn’t possible, like at the entrance and exit. Most complied with that, we just kept ours on the whole time it was easier and luckily a nice cool day when we went.

Once you have picked your row, if you bend down slightly you can see the fruit better to know where to start. I recommend pushing the leafs aside slightly as that was where the bigger riper strawberries were hiding. There were some quite large ones ready to pick when we went too.

We took our daughter with us, and being a toddler I wasn’t sure if she would want to join in but she loved scanning the plants for them. Once we pointed one out she did really well pulling them off while we held the stem. This was the first time strawberry picking for all of us, and now I am wondering why we waited so long, hopefully we can keep coming so she can continue to make these memories.

Once you are ready to leave you head over to the exit for weighing and they do take cash or credit, this part was all outside too which was helpful. We didn’t fill the whole box but had a good single layer which was close to a pound in weight. Once we got home we washed them and honestly, I don’t want to ever buy grocery store strawberries ever again, they were so sweet and fresh! It was almost like they had sugar on, they were that sweet! I cannot recommend this activity enough!

You can check their website out or their Instagram page, as that is where they will update you on when they run out of ripe fruit to pick and update you once they are open again. They open only on certain days so check their schedule to plan your trip.

The Southern Hill Farms website is http://southernhillfarms.com and their Instagram handle is @southernhillfarms and you can also check them out on Facebook for live updates.

Every week you can hear me share my top weekend picks for things to do in and around the City Beautiful mornings on K92.3 with Obie and Ashley in the morning!

In case you missed it, here’s are my top picks for January 8-10, 2021!

This Weekend Around Orlando

Mecum Auto Auction kicks off at the Osceola Heritage Park!

Mecum Kissimmee, set for January 7-16, is the world’s largest collector-car auction featuring an estimated 3,500 vehicles and thousands of pieces of Road Art collectibles. 

Registered bidders from nearly all 50 states and a dozen countries travel to Osceola Heritage Park annually to participate in the renowned auction event, portions of which are televised live on NBC Sports Network.

Tickets are required and there are health & safety protocols in place. 

This Weekend in the Theme Parks

The Taste of Epcot International Festival of the Arts kicks off this weekend at Walt Disney World!

Starting January 8, 2021, the Walt Disney World Resort will welcome the Taste of Epcot International Festival of the Arts daily until February 22, 2021.

While this year’s global celebration of the visual, culinary, and performing arts may look a little different, guests will still be able to enjoy a wide selection of activities for the entire family that is included in their admission to the park.

Outdoor Fun

Celebrate the winter harvest at your local farm by picking your own farm fresh strawberries at the first strawberry season at Southern Hill Farms in Clermont. 

Tickets and/or reservations are not required, and you can visit the farm anytime that they are open. 

Quantities cannot be guaranteed and strawberry picking is first come, first served with $4/lb u-pick strawberries.

While you are on the farm make sure you check out their bakery for their new strawberry donuts, blueberry cobbler, blueberry muffins, and other seasonal treats. 

Please keep in mind that:

• There are no additional crops or activities available at this time. 
• Face masks are required for all guests over the age of 3 while under covered barns, standing in lines, and when social distancing cannot be maintained.
• No animals of any kind allowed on the farm during the strawberry u-pick due to state and federal food safety regulations.
• No outside alcohol, coolers, and catered meals are allowed.
• Schofield Road is a Lake County clay road.
• Southern Hill Farms is a working farm, you will be parking and walking in grass and unpaved areas.
• All events are subject to change or cancellation due to inclement weather and crop availability.
• Always check their website on the day of your planned visit for final event details.
• Please arrive prepared. 

Hours and directions:

16651 Schofield Road, Clermont, FL 34714. from 11 am to 4 pm.

DEAL ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gatorland has brought its most popular Florida Resident Special back from extinction.  Not seen since 2014, Florida Residents can visit the Alligator Capital of the World for just $9.99 for single-day admission, now through January 31^st.  Tickets must be purchased at the admission’s gate with a valid Florida ID.   This rare discount won’t be around long.

Florida residents will enjoy their favorite rides, shows, and exhibits such as the Alligator Breeding Marsh, White Gator Swamp, Petting Zoo, Bird Aviary, Jungle Crocs of the World, the Alligators – Legends of the Swamp and Up Close Encounters shows, and of course, Social Distancing Skunk Ape.  Guests won’t want to miss Gatorland’s newest residents, Ben and Jerry, the Capybaras.

The City of Clermont has many activities to safely enjoy this season and take part in. They just had their Virtual Light up Clermont Ceremony on December 4th, which featured a special message from the Mayor and Council. Don’t worry if you missed it, because there’s something so fun going on at Victory Pointe!

Clermont’s Holiday Enchanted Forest opened December 5 and runs until January 3, 2021 at Victory Pointe. It is open nightly until 10pm. There are over 40 decorated trees all lined up by the lake.

Schools, organizations, businesses, and families have individually decorated these trees being showcased nightly.

You can stroll through the Enchanted Forest at your leisure while listening to the Holiday music being played throughout. Signs in front of each tree tell you which group decorated each tree, some are more obvious than others, but they are all so fun!

We went on quite a cold night for Florida, and since it is located right by the lake it got very chilly so be sure to take a blanket or decent coat/sweater so you can enjoy it more. Don’t be like me in shorts and a T-Shirt wondering “where this cold snap even came from?”.

There is also a box to drop off letters to Santa in Santa’s mailbox which will be delivery directly to the North Pole. It’s right by the entrance to the Holiday Enchanted Forest, and also has a great area for photo opportunities.

It really is a fun, cute event and completely free! I want to go back in the day time now to enjoy some of the details more as they were all lit up so beautifully but I want to see the creativity close up!

On the way out we decided to walk by the historic village and I am so glad we did, they have a few little cute displays and cut outs. But what was a really nice addition this year was over in the bay window of the Train Depot, the building closest to West Avenue.

Tommy Candido, display coordinator at John Zweifel’s President’s Hall of Fame, set up his personal Christmas Village. The display fills the entire window and is lighted every evening, 6-10pm.

It’s such a pretty animated display, featuring children on sleds, ice skaters, an air balloon and Gibbon (a Yeti, a signature of every Christmas Village Candido has put together over the years). I loved the little town square in the middle with all the light up trees leading to the big tree!

You can check out more about this event among others if you head to their website www.ClermontFL.gov

This year, Downtown Winter Garden will be different for Christmas in order to keep people safe, but they are still offering some fun and safe entertainment for everyone.

This year, they have festive lighting and decorations, holiday-themed photo stations, a painted holiday mural wall, Santa’s Workshop, Winter Wonderland and many more activities outside for everyone.

There were plenty of places for photo opportunities and they even had a small area cordoned off with real snow that they kept topping up for kids and big kids-alike!

All the activities were free except for the horse-drawn carriage which requires reservations.

Our personal favorite was the projection light show they are doing on Town Hall. It runs in about a 20 minute loop and features Christmas songs and projection mapping over the building.

The light show runs mostly on weekends from 6-9pm, the link to will be at the bottom of the page for their Holiday Calendar.

They also have a Merry Winter Garden Farmer’s Market every Saturday in December, 8:00 am to 1:00 pm, where you can find produce, artisan foods, wreaths and holiday plants.

Seasonal food, drinks and merchandise will be available for purchase at shops and restaurants, and you will find expanded outside seating. Make sure you also check out the Garden Theatre, as they will be having live theatre and holiday movies shown throughout December.

Check out http://downtownwg.com for the town’s schedule and www.gardentheatre.org to see what Garden Theatre is offering this Holiday season.