Strawberries

So, I think I said at one point that my favorite thing to do on a Saturday morning was bake.  I might have been wrong.  Saturday mornings may indeed be made for strawberry picking.  Especially Saturday mornings like this one: cloudy and dewy.  This means, a.) it is not too hot, nor is the sun beating down on you and turning your skin as red as the strawberries you are seeking, and b.) the plants are wet, which is both cooling and just plain fun.  For some reason, I think sifting through slightly wet leaves for the perfect berry is way more fun than plain old dry ones.  You may disagree.  Who knows.

And I may also have something else to say about Saturday mornings next week, but for now, strawberry picking is where it's at.

I love having the opportunity to harvest my own food -- hence my love for farmer's markets (which are about as close as it gets for most of us).  I've always been slightly interested in those vacations where you go to a farm and help out with the daily operations in exchange for produce, farm fresh meals and a place to stay.  Note I say slightly interested.  I would have to think long and hard about this before I actually embarked on one.

However, pick your own berries are a much simpler way of doing this.  It's always fun to go to the strawberry picking farm around here.  It's always interesting, too, because it seems like half the people in my high school class either work there or have some connection there, so it's a great way to catch up.  It's also not that far away, but it kind of feels like a different world.  The fields overlook this beautiful vista of hills in the distance.  The strawberry plants really don't know how good they have it.

Mom and I went this morning and in about half an hour had picked about a flat of strawberries -- a little over 10 pounds.  It's hard to believe that so many strawberries can be found in less than one row of very healthy, lovely strawberry plants.  And there were so many not even close to ripe.

And strawberries have always been kind of a conundrum for me.  It seems like the more sun they get, the redder they would get (kind of like humans).  But the fruits actually grow deep in the plants, shaded by the plethora of (slightly dewy) leaves.  They seem so counter-intuitive.  It seems the deeper and darker the berry is, the bigger and juicier it gets.

Of course, on the way home, we had to stop and get whipped cream.  You can't seriously expect to eat a flat of strawberries (and their products!) without whipped cream.  Especially in a house with three whipped-cream-addicts.