Berry pickin' time

Over the last month or so, I've keeping watch over my strawberry plants-pacing around the little patch, heaping mulch around the plants and fuming over deer damage. The patch is so little and the berries so small that my harvest will probably only consist of a few handfuls of fruit. With that in mind, the main reason I've been watching my berries is so I would know when the time was right to make visit to the real strawberry farmers and reap the rewards of their labor. Yesterday the time had come, so Rowan, Lilla and I headed on over to one of our favorite farms:

Just picked, still warm from the sun berries nearly melt in the mouth. As we were picking, I overheard an adult daughter a few rows over telling her Mom to please stop eating all the berries. But it is impossible to not sample at least a few berries while picking to keep the energy up and make sure the berries are good. These definitely passed the goodness test:
Part of the bounty we brought home with us:
After all of our hard work picking in the morning sun, we rewarded ourselves with strawberry smoothies:
Just whirled up our berries with some frozen banana (always have a supply of that just waiting in the freezer for this purpose), OJ, soy milk and ice.

Of the 15 pounds of strawberries we picked, only a few fresh ones remain. The rest have been frozen to supply more smoothies throughout the summer, turned into jam to begin filling the pantry and fresh sliced for a dessert of strawberry filled crepes with a dollop of decadent whipped cream (for shame!)

Give us another week or two and I'm sure we'll be right back out there. I never seem to get enough of those plump glistening fruits.