Strawberry Sunday!

It finally stopped raining a couple days ago, and the kids had just finished up with VBS, everyone was fed & happy, it wasn't too hot, or cold...so we got a wild idea and decided to hit up a fun, friendly, family farm not too far away and pick some strawberries. In years past we have made the mistake of picking in 90 degree weather. And strawberries are not an easy pick like peaches...let me just tell you...when the temp said 65 and sunny, AND the farm was open ..it was almost like the stars were aligned and we had to go for it! An hour later, we had picked some 47# of strawberries (we'll see if they last all winter)!

Ahhhh....the subtle scent of a strawberry captures the smell of a perfectly warm summer evening all into one small little red berry. Our house quickly became infused with the smell of them...and I was in "strawberry" heaven.

We had a lot  A TON of rain last week...so the berries needed to be processed right away, which meant after kids were snuggled into bed, Luke and I were processing strawberries until the wee hours of the morning...strawberry syrup, strawberry jam, strawberry basil...our kitchen looked more like strawberrymania! How is it that 1 hour of picking makes for 8 hours of work...later?

We're both dragging a little today ;) But smiling at all the lovely labeled luscious looking jars...nobody ever said reaping the harvest was easy work. While picking the other day I was daydreaming of how we could convert one of our large fields into a strawberry field...the fragrant smell of fresh strawberries...and the cute little blossoms and berries growing all spring...and watching kids just grazing off the berry patch all summer long. That dream snapped when I realized how much irrigation we'd have to lay, how much slug bait you have to invest in, how much fencing we'd have to put up...and frankly how much time it would consume to just keep weeded, and pretty and growing! We both uttered a resounding "Nope!" (I guess I was daydreaming out loud)...we will forever buy our little paradise of strawberry heaven each year...and stick to growing trees!