Lakeside strawberry fields
On Monday morning I was up at 4:45AM and got to work on my post backlog. The forecast was for rain to start at 11AM so when my #2 intern arrived at 7:30AM I was ready to head “over to Africa” to pick strawberries.
I had never picked at this place before. It was terribly late in the season and while I hoped the picking wouldn’t be too bad, I wasn’t expecting much. I had gotten the impression from the websites that this farm had organic strawberries, but when I called, they said it was IPM but they hadn’t had to spray this year. Oh, well… Beggers can’t be chosers…
So we grabbed our flats and quart containers and headed out to see what we could find.
In the past I have always knelt to pick, scooting along the rows. But the picking was so poor, I had to stand up and roam around with a quart container to wherever I could find color to check for berries.
It took both of us an hour to fill the flat and a quart container, mostly with small berries.
The website said they took cash or credit cards, so I left the cash at home. Well, it was only cash. So we went off in search of an ATM, came back and paid, then went to a Trader Joe’s nearby. I hadn’t been in a Trader Joe’s in probably 15 years. So we wandered around a bit and I picked up a few things and we headed home to process strawberries.
This photo makes them look far better than they were. All too many landed in the sinks as rejects.
My #2 intern got started on the berries as soon as we got home while I cleaned up the rest of the kitchen so I could work in the other sink. She probably did well over half of them and I got the rest.
Then we sat down and sliced up a big bowl full for strawberry shortcake. The rest went whole into 2 large bowls.
When I went to put the bowls in the spare fridge, I realized I’d forgotten to package up the butter. So I got that done. The last batch netted 7 lbs which gave me 23 lbs for the coming year. It was a bit less than I’d hoped, as I wanted at least 25 lbs. But 2 of the batches had been under weight, so it is, what it is.
Once the mess was cleaned up and the dishwasher going, I went in to sit down. But I was really tired and by 3PM I was in bed asleep for 2 hours.
I got up around 5PM and made some supper and Tom arrived because someone was borrowing his chicken processing equipment. As I was getting ready for bed, my general helper arrived back on the farm with my #1 intern.
I had thought to go to the veg gardens on Tuesday but it’s too wet as it was to rain all night. So I think we’ll get netting on the Juneberry, and the Reliance peach tree, and maybe on some of the elderberries.
The New Herb garden needs weeded badly so I think I will have my general helper and #2 intern do that while I make my giant strawberry shortcake. My helper friend arrives at 10:30AM and I’ll have him water house plants and then go do some shopping.
Wow! Lots of strawberries! I wish I could have such a place nearby! Fresh strawberries and vegetables are just great!
At least you were able to get some berries. I totally missed the season this year. If I got on the ground like you did, I would have a hard time getting back up, lol.
I told my #2 intern that I could get up once, maybe twice, then she'd have to help me. But I soon decided it wasn't worth being down...
LMAO, that is too funny!
That's tons of strawberries and they look good, season is over here for them
We have a neighbor with a nice strawberry patch. We have picked it a couple of times already this year. Its nice they share but they also don't keep up. If we didn't pick they would go to waste. Today we picked 3 quarts for them and took home about the same amount.
Ohhhh, lucky you!
#hive #posh