Skip to main content

Strawberries

It's finally that time of year again, when the strawberry farms open their fields to all us pickers!
We headed to Plant City on probably the last cool day we will have for quite awhile. The temp was 70 degrees. Perfect weather for bringing in the berries.

Before we started we sat down to a great picnic lunch of apple butter and pb sandwiches.

Here's Grammy showing us the proper way to partake of a Teddy Gram. She makes them look soooo good. She's also a computer geek and likes a good adventure!

Superman and Urban Girl (sporting her Country Girl cap) washing up after lunch.

Farm Girl and School Girl hanging around, ready to get this show started. Farm Girl and her younger sister (the Little Chef) come for the all you can eat strawberries and horses.


The fields... Not as good as they looked last year due to nematodes, but there are still strawberries out there!



The chickadees eating strawberry twizzlers and being sisters. Do they count as strawberries?


Now we're getting to some work. (sorry about the hand) Picking all those delicious berries!



Oh, here I am taking a break. Keeping count of the quarts and making sure everyone is working!


The Little Chef enjoying the berries..............

She really makes them look good. Remember, "God made dirt and it don't hurt!"
We picked 24 quarts of berries which equal 4 flats. It took about 2 hours of the adults working. Superman is the best at picking! Although this year he and Urban Girl were a little busy having rotten berry fights! The weather being nice made it so much easier. The little chickadees were busy talking with the farmer, picking enough to fill their tummies and spending time with new colt.
We also hit my favorite new spot! The drive thru produce market. I got a case of vine ripe tomatoes and a 1/2 jalapenos. Salsa anyone? We ended up picking up a couple more flats of berries. The price was outstanding.........and now I know why.
We started picking organic last year. Strawberries are the #1 fruit to eat organic (the are sprayed with you name it), so we decided to save a bit more from groceries and take the plunge. A flat of org. last season were $9 and the sprayed variety were apx $7-$13 a flat depending on the type. So for $2 more I get a healthier product with minimal pest control that is done naturally.
This year when we went to my "secret market" we could pick up a flat for $5! Well, when Grammy got home and started processing....she found that about 1/2 of her flat was bad. I found that the berries didn't taste as good as the you pick organics. So we've decided to just pick them from now on to get a more quality product.
This brings me up to today. I've 2 flats of jam to make, 1 flat of syrup, 2 to freeze and a lot to eat!
What do you make with Strawberries? Please share.... I'd really like some tips!
I'll be taking a bit of a break the next couple of days. Spending time with my family , cooking and celebrating the wonderful gift that was given to me and all of mankind. The Resurrection of my Lord and Savior.
Blessings,
julie
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
mmmmmmmmmmmmm looks yummy!!! :o)

sarah
April 9, 2009 at 11:27 AM
Anonymous said…
Hi Honey,
I enjoyed the berry picking, as always,and the picnic was an added bonus!! Love, Mom xo
April 9, 2009 at 11:37 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

So Much to say.

Good Morning All! We had a wonderfully busy, four day weekend here. We started out our time together visiting a reenactment of Civil War life. We had a chance to here the cannons blow and the muskets crack. A little unnerving when your aren't prepared for it. All the Dads in our group were entranced. We learned about Morse code and the telegraph service. How to dress for day, evening and what type of hoop skirt was used for different activities. Everyone enjoyed some sarsaparilla, fried peas, parched corn and fry bread. The chickadees has lots of new ideas for ball gowns and bonnets. ( I think we will have a busy summer.) These were war refugees getting dressed for the day. The hairstyles were so intricate! Did you know that they made specific chairs for men and women? The hoops that women wore couldn't fit into chairs with arms. These chairs were also sold in pairs because married couples were the ones most likely to need them. After leaving the Raid we then headed to Bocia
1 comment
Read more

Nitrate Free Pepperoni

I'm not sure if I should show you the picture or not. I tweaked a recipe from Tammy's Recipes and it is quite tasty. BUT (and it's kind of a big BUT) the color is just not right. So the pepperoni looks a little grey (gross) but again taste SUPER! So here goes nothing.... nitrate free pepperoni See how gray it looks? That's because I used Real Salt (sea salt) instead of curring salts which have all the nitrates and fake pink color (they do this so people won't mistake it for table salt). That pink dye also gives sausages of all types that nice color we are all so used too. All the flavor was still in there and I figured if I'm making this homemade I want it to be as healthy as possible for my family. So why would I add the nitrates? Because I didn't use the pink salt I can't just leave this out in my pantry like you could with some of the store bought stuff. If you do to try this recipe and decide to go "all natural" please make sure that you
3 comments
Read more

Nestor's Party- My Craft Room!

Well I wanted to get these up because Nestor is having a 10 minute to a beautiful room party . This has definitely taken more than 10 minutes. But in my brain it was only suppose to take a day! It's far from finished, but that's what a craft room is for. Right? Here's a couple of before pics during the Children's Christmas play. Basically every surface was covered and I had to move stuff just to work. Five of us craft, sew, scrapbook etc in this room. So space and good storage is an issue. The room is apx.10x11. I really want my daughter's to grow up being Keeper's of their Homes. Home Decorating and Crafting Frugally is a must! You can have a beautiful home on a very tight budget. I also want them to be creative and have a place to show and explore their abilities. ( alrighty let me jump down from my horse; ) Here's some after photos. The paint was from the $5 bin and too yellow. So I added alot of white that we had from another project! Th
17 comments
Read more