Wind Ridge Farm

I love this place! Unfortunately I’m not in West Co anymore so this place would be one hell of a drive, so unless I take my little cousins in O’Fallon, MO, out there, I won’t be back.
But I went once this past summer because my then-​boyfriend was feeling really stressed out with life and I wanted to do something sweet to make him feel better. He loves the outdoors and looooves blackberries, and blackberries happened to be in peak season. So I found this farm and took him out there.
The drive to get out there was very pretty. It’s in New Melle and I got to drive down winding roads past farms and quaint houses and gardens — very scenic.
Parking was convenient, the staff people were very friendly. The blackberry farm was huge! And they were BEAUTIFUL. There is NOTHING like blackberries right off the bush. They looked like big sparkling gemstones. No lie. And the bushes were thornless, which was really nice.
The only downside is that you have to get here EARLY. We luckily got there right as it opened and were able to get a good haul of blackberries, but when we wanted to try the blueberries (which was a significantly smaller field), they had already run out for the day. It took less than an hour to run out.
Also, the line got LONG. Like I said, we were there early enough and didn’t screw with the blueberries, so we got a good place in line, but man. We were starting to feel like we had to elbow little old ladies out of the way to get the berries quickly enough to not be last in line. Apparently it’s always like this — a scramble to get the berries and running out in less than an hour — you’d think they would plant enough to serve the customer demand, but what do I know?
They also had the most delicious wildflower honey I’ve ever tasted.
I unfortunately missed peach season. If it wasn’t so far from me I would totally be back. The blackberries were huge, juicy, ripe, sweet, and no tasting of pesticide like the ones I buy from the chain-​grocery stores. Most incredible tasting blackberries I’ve ever had. Excuse me while I wipe the drool off my keyboard from just thinking about it.