Strawberries

Every year we pick strawberries that I then freeze or process into jam.  Someday I'd love to have a strawberry patch - it's definitely on the "dreaming about it" list for the mini-farm someday.  And we have enough plants that my kids snack on an ever-bearing variety most of the summer.  But for now we have to go elsewhere for real quantity (and quality, in all honesty).

This year we had to find a new place because the drive to Indiana just seemed a bit much, even though we really liked the farm we used to go to when we lived there.

So I found a new place, and we picked 23 pounds of strawberries this morning.  Well, Ben and Bee and I picked, J mostly wandered and said "Daddy, wee-ewww hold me fah why-dull?"

Now, price-wise I'm sure we're no better off than what we'd be buying them from the supermarket.  It's either an even match or just a tiny bit cheaper, which the gas to make the drive will offset.

But there are things that make it worth it:

1) They are TINY, very red berries that are all sweetness and no genetically-altered white puffiness in their inside flesh.

2) They use no pesticides or organophosphates on their plants - which means I'm not stockpiling chemicals into my kids' systems.

3) We did some hard work with our own two hands.  NEVER a bad thing.



4) My children observed things like "This is a hard job!  I think I want to be an animal doctor instead so I don't have to be in the sun all day!" and "I'm glad there are people who work picking berries so I don't have to pick my own every day!  They work hard."

All in all, a worthwhile, yummy, and fun morning.