I am so behind on berry picking this year! Actually, if I'm being honest, I should say I am so behind on EVERYTHING this year. Matthew being gone has really made day to day life much busier and definitely more challenging. I don't have him to help with the kids, dinner, the dog, the yard, and forget about a garden this year! I just don't have enough hours in the day to get everything done. Which is probably why I completely spaced picking strawberries this year - it just didn't even occur to me when early June came around that perhaps I needed to get out to the berry fields. Finally, early this week it dawned on me....strawberries! If I don't get them now, I wont get them at all - berry season is a short 3 weeks or so, and then they are gone till next year.
I headed out to our favorite farm, loaded with boxes and ready to pick pound after pound and fill my freezer. One look at the fields dashed all those dreams. The berries were teeny tiny and very, very scarce. I realized later when I checked out that they were going to be closing for the year in just a couple of days, which explained the nearly complete lack of fruit available to be picked. I picked for hours, bent over row after row of strawberry plants, pushing back leaves in search of berries. All I got to show for it was a few measly pound of tiny (but very sweet) berries, and a wicked sunburn.
Note to self - go berry picking earlier in the season next year, and wear a longer shirt.
Not ready to completely give up on the idea of a freezer full of delicious berries, I went in on a local berry buy that some friends posted about on Facebook. The berries were from a local, no spray commercial farm, and everyone had rave reviews of the farm and farmer. I bought 6 flats and was really excited when I picked the berries up from the drop off location - they looked and smelled great! Rowan was thrilled to find a couple gigantic ones in the boxes:
As I started washing, sorting and de-stemming them though, I realized that not only did they not taste good but there were a BUNCH that were moldy and rotten.
I estimated that I had to throw away nearly 2 flats worth of berries. And the berries that were left were all completely tasteless - no sweet strawberry flavor at all. I was SO disappointed! I sent the picture above with an explanation of what I had found to the farmer, and she was very apologetic and refunded my money for the 2 flats of moldy berries. So my hopes to fill my freezer with delicious berries for winter eating are dashed, and my lesson learned. At least there is still hope for raspberries and blueberries this year!
I headed out to our favorite farm, loaded with boxes and ready to pick pound after pound and fill my freezer. One look at the fields dashed all those dreams. The berries were teeny tiny and very, very scarce. I realized later when I checked out that they were going to be closing for the year in just a couple of days, which explained the nearly complete lack of fruit available to be picked. I picked for hours, bent over row after row of strawberry plants, pushing back leaves in search of berries. All I got to show for it was a few measly pound of tiny (but very sweet) berries, and a wicked sunburn.
Note to self - go berry picking earlier in the season next year, and wear a longer shirt.
Not ready to completely give up on the idea of a freezer full of delicious berries, I went in on a local berry buy that some friends posted about on Facebook. The berries were from a local, no spray commercial farm, and everyone had rave reviews of the farm and farmer. I bought 6 flats and was really excited when I picked the berries up from the drop off location - they looked and smelled great! Rowan was thrilled to find a couple gigantic ones in the boxes:
As I started washing, sorting and de-stemming them though, I realized that not only did they not taste good but there were a BUNCH that were moldy and rotten.
I estimated that I had to throw away nearly 2 flats worth of berries. And the berries that were left were all completely tasteless - no sweet strawberry flavor at all. I was SO disappointed! I sent the picture above with an explanation of what I had found to the farmer, and she was very apologetic and refunded my money for the 2 flats of moldy berries. So my hopes to fill my freezer with delicious berries for winter eating are dashed, and my lesson learned. At least there is still hope for raspberries and blueberries this year!