Breakfast and Berry Picking at Rose's Berry Farm in Glastonbury

Last Sunday my boyfriend, younger sister and I decided to take a drive up to Rose's Berry Farm in South Glastonbury. I've been to their booth at the Westport Farmer's Market many times in the past and had been able to get their beautiful berries and produce there.. but when I heard that they served breakfast on Sundays on a terrace overlooking the farm, I knew we had to visit ourselves! It was about an hour and 20 minute drive from Norwalk. Most of the way is on i95 and then i91 and is simple enough.. but after i91 there are quite a few turns so be sure to have your navigation set up! 
We arrived at about noon (Breakfast is served from 8-1) and found a few people enjoying a late brunch. We'd missed the breakfast rush, and the terrace was nice and quiet. Breakfast is served on a roofed terrace with open sides, festooned with gorgeous hanging baskets of flowers and cheerful berry-print tablecloths. The view is gorgeous, overlooking the entire farm. Fans in the rafters keep the terrace comfortable.  

Rose's employs a small army of friendly teenagers as their waitstaff, and one of the girls quickly brought us a menu and offered us coffee or juice. The menu is short, mainly pancakes, waffles, or french toast in addition to daily specials. The special when we visited was a yogurt parfait with fresh berries. I was also impressed to see that they had a couple of gluten-free offerings, including gluten-free blueberry muffins. 
We ordered a belgian waffle, french toast, and pancakes. Each is served with fresh home made whipped cream and a compote of whatever fruit is coming fresh off the farm that day. When we visited, it was a blueberry compote.. and it was delicious. I ate the whole belgian waffle. THE WHOLE THING. I don't think I've ever finished a belgian waffle by myself before. The fresh blueberry compote was so nice, not too tart or sweet and full of blueberry flavor. The homemade whipped cream was a perfect complement. Our order came out quite quickly, too..

As you can see, presentation is no-frills. Paper cups and plates. But we aren't here for the fine china, are we? We came for the delicious, fresh breakfast and the amazing view. The prices were very reasonable.  Our order of pancakes, french toast, belgian waffle and two coffees came out to exactly 20 dollars before tax or tip. We decided to take a little walk to settle our full bellies, and did some after-brunch berry picking. A shuttle (read: tractor) drove us a couple of minutes away to the raspberry fields. We took our little pint containers and quickly picked 8 pints worth! It was easy to do, the berries were ripe and abundant. 

The tractor then took us back to the weigh station/gift shop, where we paid for our berries. Our 8 pints of raspberries (and over a pound of blueberries that we also stopped to pick) cost about 27 dollars. Pretty good deal! Less than you'd pay at the store, and certainly much fresher. A visit to Rose's Berry Farm is a really nice way to spend a sunny Summer day.. especially if you go on Sunday for the delicious breakfast! 

You can find out more about Rose's Berry Farm including their hours and their full menu at www.rosesberryfarm.com

P.S- If you're wondering what we did with all those berries- I made 6 pints of fresh jam that night!