Strawberry Fields Forever

The past couple of years I have heard about strawberry picking.  We've gone pumpkin picking and apple picking but never strawberry picking.  So this year, when I started seeing all sorts of posts and photos on Facebook from friends who had taken their kids strawberry picking, I figured it was time to go.


the boys headed out to pick strawberries

We chose a lovely, cool-ish, sunny morning to go.  I put Miss Elizabeth in the Ergo carrier and wore her while the rest of us picked strawberries. 

Have you ever picked strawberries?  I haven't.  And let me tell you, it's NOT like picking apples.  There is no standing and reaching.  There is only kneeling/squatting/sitting in dirt and leaning.  It's a lot of work.

Caroline searching for the best strawberries.  You can't tell, but her shirt has strawberries on it.  Just pointing it out so you can appreciate it.

A friend of mine stated it best when she said her kids would make terrible migrant workers.  That is how we were.  I saw people leaving with two boxes full of strawberries weighing 20 pounds or something. 

Ryan and Grant working hard to find the best fruit

Jack digging deep into the plant to find a great strawberry

Really??  What will you do with that many strawberries?  How much do you love strawberries that you are willing and able to pick that many?  Not so much for us.  We were good with our five pounds.  We ate strawberry shortcake and put the strawberries on ice cream.  We also ate them plain.  The thing is, my kids like strawberries, but even they got burned out on the tasty red fruit.  I am thinking, unlike apple and pumpkin picking, this may be something we DON'T do annually.  I think I'm actually good paying a bit more to buy the pre-picked organic strawberries at the grocery store.

This was our first attempt at the nice family picture--notice who did not want to participate.  (In fairness to him, he was not feeling so great, but we think it's a funny picture.)

For the next one we just asked the guy to take a picture of those of us looking at the camera.  Maybe the next time we do this we'll all be smiling at the camera!