Strawberry Patch

Lately I've been thinking about having the kids try their hand at picking some berries at the local strawberry patch. We've done the apple picking in the fall to make pies, cobblers, and applesauce but never strawberries. We did try growing our own strawberries, but I think our patch is still a little young because we only yielded oh...about 4 strawberries (unless you count the 10 green strawberries that Katie ate..yuck)! Anyhow, for the past few years we have either had homemade jam made from my in-laws or made from myself from store bought berries, and we are plum out. And I'm sorry, after you have had homemade strawberry jam it is hard to go back to store bought.

So grandpa called last night and said the farm still had enough berries for today, but only until 10 am (apparently it was a popular attraction this year with the lovely weather and all). He wanted to meet at 7:45 a.m. at the local gas station to caravan over. Needless to say, I was a little leary that I could get everyone moving by 7:30, but I thought I'd give it a go (especially since it is hard enough to get the kids out the door by 9 a.m. for church on Sunday, with an extra helping hand)! But we did it. Katie wasn't too happy with me, but she perked up once she saw grandpa.

Actually, I was surprised at how much fun we had. In the past when I tried picking strawberries in my in-laws garden, the mosquito's have been almost more than I could bare. This was so pleasant! No bugs, no blistering sun, it was just beautiful. The girls tried their best at picking, but in the end they picked about 10 each and then headed to the car to have grandma read them a book. Maybe it was a little early for them yet.

The real fun came when we came home to fix up all the berries. Kyra was having a blast cutting her share of the berries, trying her best to mash them, and helping to measure the sugar. We had our first experience trying to measure correctly with the measuring cup. "It's not at the 4 cup mark yet Mom." I was surprised at how much fun I had with her helping, because unfortunately I am usually a control freak when it comes to the kitchen (I have to do things my own way - maybe a little bit of my Dad in me? Nah, couldn't be). After two batches of jam, we still have berries left over, so already the hubs is thinking strawberry shortcake, and I'm thinking strawberry pie. We might just even try freezing whole berries to make smoothies for a later date. Mmmm...summer produce is finally here.