Like everyone else, we’re always searching for inexpensive, educational, and fun activities. During this school break, we found one of the best — hitting our local pick-your-own berry farm. We’re lucky in that we live near Eckert’s Farm, the world’s largest pick-your-own operation. But even if you’re not our neighbor, there are pick-your-own farms just about everywhere, according to pickyourown.org.

As the seasons change, so do the crops. Once the strawberries are gone, we can look forward to blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. July brings peaches, followed by apples and pumpkins — enough fun to get us to the next school year, and a bumper crop of inexpensive, locally-grown produce.

For a little over $15, my daughter and I spent an afternoon on the farm, leisurely picking seven and a half pounds of perfect strawberries off the vines. She got to learn a little about how farms work, how to choose which berries to pick, and we both got a hefty workout and some great mother-daughter time on a sunny summer day. We went home happy and tired, with enough strawberries to preserve for those not-so-warm days in seasons to come. Hopefully, we also created some fond memories that will last long after the strawberries are gone.

Ooooooh, this oatmeal’s called Monkey Brains! Monkeys are hilarious! Brains are gross and therefore even funnier!

My four-year-old wasn’t the one begging for the $5/box oatmeal (on sale). Instead, I was snatching a box of the raspberry-flavored oatmeal off the shelf, shoving it in my daughter’s face and shrieking, “Monkey Brains! How funny is that? Should we take some Monkey Brains home?”

She really didn’t care either way, which is her general response to any oatmeal product. I figured that, if I can convince her she’s eating real monkey brains, there’s a chance she might actually get some oatmeal in her system.

That, and I like monkeys a lot.

I made the first bowl of the instant oatmeal, which turned pink from the presence of dried raspberries. That’s cool, but it doesn’t really look like the two servings of fruit touted on the box. What do I know? I went to culinary school and yet I just purchased a processed food based on the packaging.

I can’t vouch for the presence of prebiotics and probiotics, since I have no idea what they look like. Nor do I know how they got into the oatmeal. I do like the presence of cane sugar instead of the usual sweetening agents, although I’d prefer no sugar at all. What’s wrong with adding my own honey to plain oatmeal? Or my own dried raspberries, for that matter?

The real test was whether my oatmeal-resistant but raspberry-loving child would eat the stuff. I sat it before her, she let a big dribble drop from her spoon, took a small tentative bite, flashed the fake grin she uses when she’s had an obligatory bite and has no intentions of taking another, and asked if she could have some yogurt instead.

I ate the Monkey Brains, which tasted like… instant oatmeal. A $5 box of instant oatmeal that I allowed myself to be suckered into buying just because I liked the name of the product and thought it would be cool to eat Monkey Brains.

I’m 35 years old, but the Monkey Brains people know that my age group is just as vulnerable to marketing as our children. They even say so on their website. In a section where they lay out what consumers need and what they provide, they blatantly state it. “Moms are desperate for healthy foods kids will eat.”

Obviously.

No. Just because the previous generation of mothers had to suffer through the plastic nightmare of fast food playplaces and terrible meals doesn’t mean that we are doomed to the same fate.

In the four years since my daughter’s birth, two wonderful alternatives have opened to families in St. Louis, Missouri - Cooperella and Hartford Coffee Company. Gone are the ball pits and sugary sodas. In their place, these coffeehouse cafes installed play areas with train tables, Exersaucers, make-believe kitchens, books, and blocks. Instead of burgers, fries, and soda, kids nosh on fresh sandwiches, yogurt, fresh fruit, hummus, and organic milk, while the caregivers indulge in espresso and gourmet cafe goodies.

Parents in St. Louis aren’t the only ones reaping the rewards of forward-thinking entrepreneurs who see the value in catering to the tyke crowd with their kid-friendly cafes. You’d expect to see places like My Coffeehouse in Seattle, Java Mama in La Mesa, California, and Java Train Coffee in St. Paul, Minnesota, but other small cities have been similarly blessed. Louisville, Kentucky has Ray’s Monkey House and Spring Branch, Texas, has Loft Coffee.

Some shops offer enough toys to keep the kids entertained while the adults enjoy a coffee break, and others include programs to enrich those little minds and bodies. Cooperella offers toddler yoga classes. The class schedule at Zocalo Coffeehouse in San Leandro, California, runs the gamut from music to Spanish to exercise. Live music for the whole family’s on the menu at Coffee Muggers in Grand Junction, Colorado.

So let the cranky journalist have her chain coffee in peace. Support a local coffeehouse that supports the community and its families.