Fatherhood and my stewardship of CMH Griffin took me south of I 70 to what turned out to be a mainstay of greater Grove City, Darbydale, Groveport and points beyond – Circle S. Farm.
The farm opens for seasonal events including Fall Fun Days, so it was decided by a power greater than me (Mrs. Gourmand) that we would be having fun.
Before I forget, here are two critical tips to better enjoy your trip.
1) Go early to beat the swarms – plans on lots of bees at Circle S. and plans for their numbers to rise as more people come and spill sweet things that attract more bees. And come early to beat the swarms of people and the long lines they bring because this place fills up fast. On a Sunday go before the church crowd gets out so you can have a pretty fun time to explore the farm on your own without having to dodge all the city and trailerslickers.
2) Buy a couple packages of the day old donuts, they are a great value and you will need supplies for the drive home.
When we arrived, I saw the sign below and opted to treat my next step as one of the choose your own adventure books of my youth. I decided my adventure would start with food by turning right towards food instead for left to the hay barn.
My vision of food options was a paper plate with some donuts from a box on an old card table…that was very much not the case. There are two food areas at the farm located side by side. One section is set up like a concession stand at a high school football game – you can choose from bean soup, chicken and noodles, chili, hot dogs and cold apple cider. All except the cider are homemade. The chili was OK, the chicken and noodles were bland but featured very fresh and well cooked chicken.
Next door, there was a small store and full service bakery with an array of goodies, mostly donuts. The bakery space is a pretty tightly run operation with more commercial equipment that I have seen in many year round bakeries. I sampled several of the items avalable but the must try are the donuts, they were all exceptional. In fact so exceptional as to warrant a listing in the Ohio Donut Trail. There were eight to ten varieties of donuts including the ubiquitous Ohio Fall flavor of pumpkin, a maple glazed donut, coconut, a powered sugar donut, several with nuts sprinkled on top and a few with chocolate glaze. Each version sampled was good while the pumpkin and maple were exceptional. The good news here is that you can go to the farm store directly and avoid admission fees so it is an option to limit your fun to just buying donuts from the shop and you can stock up by buying the day old donuts by the dozen at $4 per pop.
Circle S Farm
Circle S Farms
9015 London Groveport Rd. (St. Rt. 665)
Grove City, OH 43123
United States
614-878-7980
CMH Gourmand - Eating in Columbus & Ohio 