A Trip to Meri Acres Farm

There was one place I absolutely had to go the moment I arrived. I just had to guess the weight of the marrow. Unfortunately, I arrived before the contest began so I wandered through the field of marrows. As I trekked back to the competition, I managed to catch a glimpse of the photo of Besse. Besse was absolutely massive, no way any marrow on this farm could even come close to topping Besse. I estimated that the marrow was somewhere between 200 and 800 pounds. I know, that’s quite a range but I am really not an expert at guessing weight. As soon as the contest began, I wrote down my guess of 348. As I waited for the results, I crossed my fingers that I was correct and would end up with the rare Elixir of Marrow. Unfortunately, my guess was not correct and I went home empty handed.

I’m not entirely sure how I convinced myself to walk over to the rubbish dump, but I did. The smell was fairly contained to just the dump; I only ever noticed the smell waft over to the marrow field when the wind kicked up. I was a little disappointed upon my arrival; there was absolutely nothing notable in the dump. Part of me just wanted to leave, but for the sake of my reporting, I was determined to find something. I waited around long enough, that I am pretty sure the smell of the dump has been permanently infused in my clothing. Honestly, I wish I would have brought a second set of clothes, just so I could leave my smelly ones at the dump. After about 15 or so minutes of waiting, I managed to snag a soggy old box. Yeah, I know. Did I wait 15 whole minutes for that? Part of me wanted to stay, but in all honesty, why did I want to sit around waiting for more junk?

I quickly left the rubbish dump and headed over to the original potato counter. I was curious to see how fast I could count. On my first go, I counted 41 potatoes in 30 seconds. I’d like to blame Alton Moughbry for getting distracted as I tried to report the number to him. If he had been paying attention, I would have finished below 30 seconds. I tried once more and once again counted 41 potatoes. In all honesty, I think Alton kept the number the same because he pitied me. This time, however, I was much faster. 17 seconds! I told him he needed to change up the number of potatoes if I was going to try for a third time. He kindly obliged and laid out 54 potatoes. This time it took me 21 seconds to count. There’s something so addicting about counting potatoes, I highly encourage everyone to stop by on their trip to Meri Acres Farm, you might even find yourself up 200 Neopoints like myself.

Before I ended my visit to potato counter, I wanted to sit down and chat with the genius behind Potato Counter. I know he has some competition every since the extreme game was released, but I honestly believe this game is much better. Alton told me he enjoys watching grass grow and paint dry when he isn’t busy growing potatoes to count. His most prized possession is his potato peeler, that has been handed down for generations. I asked him how often tourists dropped by, and he admitted not so often anymore. Extreme potato counter has really killed his game. I assured him that I would refrain from playing extreme potato counter to support him. While you may not earn a snazzy avatar by hanging out with Alton, you most certainly will have a good time

My last stop was the Pick Your Own farm, which costs 400 Neopoints. Spending that 400 Neopoints, gets you a basket that can hold 6 items and the chance to walk through 20 areas of the farm. I will admit, shelling out 400 Neopoint seemed a bit excessive, but I had earned half of that while playing Potato Counter with Alton. My first pick I found a Sniddberry. I was happy with that result considering it wasn’t a pile of dung. I moved north to pick some more berries and stumbled across a half-eaten berry. I was tempted to hold onto it but ultimately made the decision to discard it because I don’t know whose mouth has been on that thing. I headed east and just my luck, I found another half-eaten berry. I chucked this one as far as I could. Moving back south, I couldn’t believe it. I found a pile of dung in the berry bush. It made me wonder how on earth this place is still open. I quickly discarded the dung and moved further south. When all was said and done, I ended up with three half-eaten berries, a rotten berry, an old rotten boot and the sniddberry.

I am not entirely sure what the draw is to Pick Your Own. I feel like I need to spend an hour washing my hands after touching all those half eaten berries. On my journey out of Meri Acres Farm, I dropped off my loot at the rubbish dump, hoping a more unfortunate person could find some use with the items. Considering I had only gotten a cardboard box earlier, I decided to hang around the rubbish dump for a bit longer. My clothes already stunk, so there was no harm in waiting. Unfortunately, my patience ran thin and I left empty handed.

All in all, I enjoyed my visit to the quaint Meri Acres Farm. While I will probably avoid the Pick Your Own field in the future, there was something quite thrilling about hanging out at the rubbish dump, minus the stench. I think I’ve found a real friend in Alton and cannot wait to come back and visit him. I would highly recommend a day trip to the farm if you haven’t done so already. Despite the smell, it’s got quite a bit of charm.