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The Rock Ranch will celebrate the ribbon-cutting for its new Village Post Office Saturday morning at 10 a.m., and also kick off the beginning of the strawberry picking season at the ranch with itsw annual Strawberry Festival from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Postal Service launched the Village Post Office concept in July 2011 as a way to expand access to postal products and services in communities that do not have a post office or where the current post office hours may have been reduced. VPOs are located within existing businesses and are operated by the management of those locations. VPOs can offer a range of services including Forever Stamps, Pre-paid Priority Mail Flat Rate envelopes, mail collection boxes and post office boxes.

The Rock Ranch is owned by Chick-fil-A founder S. Truett Cathy and is dedicated to “Growing Healthy Families.” The VPO will operate Monday – Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., during The Rock Ranch’s Open Season, March - November. The grand opening of the VPO will be held in conjunction with The Rock Ranch Strawberry Festival.

Guests will enjoy picking fresh strawberries from the strawberry patch and eating homemade strawberry ice cream. There will be tasty strawberry treats like strawberry shortcake, stuffed strawberries and chocolate dipped strawberries. The produce stand also sells fresh produce, honey, jellies, all natural pork products and The Rock Ranch steroid free, antibiotic free beef. From 10 a.m. to noon the produce stand will be drawing names to give-away some premium beef and they’ll be sampling jellies and ice cream.

The festivities include corn hole games, a children’s bounce house face painting and there will be a bluegrass band providing some banjo pickin’ to accompany all the strawberry pickin’. Families may also meet and take pictures with The Rock Ranch Strawberry Princess. All of these activities are free and guests will also enjoy the tree fort playground at the U-Pick area.

The “Cow-A-Bunga” zip lines will be open for those who are not too chicken. These amazing attractions transport guests at tree top level across the corn field and over two ponds at speeds of 30 mph. The cost is $7 to ride the fast lines (800 ft.) or $12 to ride the long lines (1300 ft.).

Other ranch attractions will be available, as well. Guests that purchase a wrist band for $10 may enjoy unlimited rides on the locomotive train, pony rides, paddle boats and peddle carts. The wrist band also allows guests to enjoy the giant jumping pillow, Tiny Town, slide hill, cane pole fishing, the corn box, spider webs, petting zoo and more. Concessions will be sold and menu options include Chick-fil-A sandwiches, hot dogs, pizza, sno cones, and fresh strawberry and walnut salad.

Strawberries are sold for $2 a pound U-Pick or $3 pre-picked. The produce stand, U-Pick produce area and new playground are open every Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. from now until November. After strawberry season, The Rock Ranch will offer fresh crops of sweet corn, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries and grapes.

The Rock Ranch is located at 5020 Barnesville Highway (Highway 36), The Rock, Ga. It is a 1330-acre ranch owned Chick-fil-A founder by S. Truett Cathy and dedicated to “Growing Healthy Families”. For more information, visit www.therockranch.com, call 706-647-6374 or find them on Facebook.