Strawberry Bounty

The strawberries were plentiful this year and my friend Dawn and I were fortunate to be able to continue our tradition of taking our kids strawberry picking on the 4th of July.  And what a day for it - sunny skies and low 80s.  We took a tractor ride out to the strawberry patch and upon first inspection, I was delighted to see how big the berries were in comparison with last year's crop.  I couldn't stop picking them and 15 pounds of strawberries later, I was still excited to thrust apart a bunch of leaves and see another juicy and deep red berry hidden below. 

Just Soren was along for this season's strawberry-picking outing since Chris had taken Oliver up to the cabin with him for the weekend.  Last summer Soren wasn't walking, (I can't even remember if he was crawling) so I had plopped him down on a towel in between rows of berries.  Of course he wasn't content to just sit in one spot and by the time we had finished picking, he was wet (it had drizzled on and off that morning) and muddy and had consumed more straw, dirt and leaves than I want to think about. 

What a difference a year makes. Soren and I set right to work at the edge of our assigned row.  I picked a strawberry and dropped it in the cardboard tray and Soren picked it up and took a small bite out of it and dropped it back in the tray.  I picked a second strawberry and Soren took a bite out of that one too.  Not wanting to cut off all the gnawed halves of strawberries before making jam, I picked a whole bunch of berries for Soren and then took the other cardboard tray to the other end of our row and resumed picking.  Soren happily munched on strawberry after strawberry and sometimes ate the whole thing, little green top and all! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can imagine, Soren was covered in strawberry juice and sweat by the time we were finished, but he was a happy kid.  And after a morning full of sun, tractor sightings and all the strawberries he could eat, he fell fast asleep on the car ride home.