Live. Laugh. Love.: Memorial Day

Memorial Day was a HOT one!

We made plans to pick strawberries for opening day at Whittaker's Berry Farm - so exciting that the season started so early!! - and we wanted to get out there in the morning before it got too hot. Craig's sister asked if she could join us and volunteered to drive all of us in her big SUV. So we ate a light breakfast and hydrated with a tropical lassi (smoothie) on the deck while we waited for Kelly to arrive.

Don't forget to wear clothes that won't stain easily and bring water bottles and hand wipes when berry picking! Those things are key! And plan to let little ones gorge themselves while picking, so go with a bit of an appetite. ;)

Picking conditions were wonderful! Not overly crowded... straw walking paths... beautiful weather... abundant crop. I did get an e-mail from Whittaker's (I signed up for their updates on picking conditions) saying that the unexpected volume of people that came through on Monday caused them to close Tuesday to give the plants a rest to replenish! :) So tip #2 when planning to u-pick: always call ahead to ask about the picking conditions before you make the trip to the farm!

Will went with a quota in mind of how many berries he would eat. That number was 12. And once he reached that, he didn't want to pick anymore. ;) Sophie didn't poop out like that, but she never contributed... only ate. Having Craig along this year was very helpful in getting our berries picked quickly while minding the children. Hopefully he agrees to come along to other farms this summer as well!

Monkey lips always had her mouth full. She'd ask "is this a good one for my mouth?" I suggest picking fairly small berries for kids to eat to avoid juice dripping EVERYWHERE. I kept reminding them to keep their lips closed while chewing. :)

Craig didn't follow that same logic. He gave Will the biggest berries he could find. ;)

Ready to go pay for our pickings!

I think Celia got her money's worth. :)

One box is ours, the other is Kelly's. I think we picked ~13# (?) at $1.30/# totaling ~$17 and some change.

The middle of the day was nap time for kids and berry sorting/storing/cleaning/recipe-making time for me. I made about three recipes right off the bat and Craig made some strawberry lemonade (he's got his own special method which is delicious - especially when he half-freezes it and it becomes slushy) and the rest were stored in 13x9 containers with a paper towel down (unwashed) and layered no more than two high (less if possible). I sorted them all and used the most ripe ones first. And we did a great job leaving stems in tact for nearly all of them! Side note: I got my garden in on Saturday (that was a LONG day) and Craig brought out some of his strawberry lemonade slush to refresh me and I think that was just about the best thing I'd ever tasted at that moment of heat and exhaustion. ;)

In the afternoon, we headed over to the Zeller home (Craig's aunt and uncle) for our annual picnic. Potluck meal. Browsing the farm. Watermelon gorging. Trampoline jumping. Cousin time. Extreme heat. That about sums it up!!

Sophie really wanted to see (and feed) Julie's horses, but she was too intimidated to do it herself. So she made multiple trips outside the barn to pick clover and run it back to Julie or me so that we would hold her and feed it to the horse. Finally, after about 15 trips, she got up the courage to do it herself... with a lot of squinting and fast blinking and then a proud smile afterward. :)