Strawberry fields for her.
Sometimes I get this feeding my family thing right. Ok, mostly right.
Over the weekend my husband and I loaded the girls in the car, packed some water and a pail and headed out to Styer Orchard, a nearby farm, to pick fresh strawberries. That’s the part I got right. It was my idea to go. Given the copious amount of strawberries the girls eat this time of year, it seemed silly to keep paying upwards of $2 a quart when we could get many more for far less, and give the girls an early introduction to where their food really comes from—the ground, not the grocery.
We had a great time picking—and, in the case of my youngest, eating—juicy, ripe red berries. Such a good time that we filled our pail, plus four more pint baskets. In all, we took home about 7 pounds of strawberries. Now, here’s where I got it wrong. We couldn’t possibly eat this many berries before they go bad and I had no alternate plans—besides giving them away—of what to do with our bounty. Had I planned ahead I might have made jam, strawberry shortcake, or frozen some berries to enjoy out of season. But I didn’t. So instead I’ve been serving berries with nearly every meal. There were sliced strawberries at breakfast, cut-up strawberries for snacks and post-meal treats, strawberries and fresh whipped cream for desert at our Memorial Day BBQ. I would have whipped up some strawberry smoothies for the next week, too—lucky for my family, my MIL doesn’t own a blender.
Tags: farm, strawberries, u-pick
August 17, 2010 at 2:33 PM |
Ha ha. I had a similar incident when visiting friends in Houston a few years ago. Between the three of us, we picked something like 15 pounds of berries one afternoon around eastertime (not including the, um, imperfect ones we had to dispose of in our tummies as we harvested). Strawberry shortcake. Strawberry crepes. Strawberry smoothies. A handful of strawberries any time someone walked into the kitchen… I think we made it through about 8 pounds and then froze the rest.
August 17, 2010 at 2:54 PM |
Thanks for your comment. Good to know we’re not alone. And for the reminder that I need to blog again!