Strawberries

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Saturday morning some friends and I got up bright and early and went and picked strawberries. I was at a bonfire the night before and heard of a strawberry u-pick place at an Amish farm. Well, that sounded interesting PLUS one of the gals joining us is from Poland (here on a 4H exchange program and so happy to be in the U.S.) and I thought she might enjoy seeing an Amish farm. So off we went and easily found the farm. I wanted to take sooo many photos, but didn’t feel entirely comfortable doing that…as a rule, I believe the Amish have a ‘no photos’ policy.

When we arrived a very nice barefooted man walked us through the dewy grass, past a colorful perennial garden, through a small orchard, and beyond the bountiful vegetable garden to the strawberry patch. It was so unbelievably quiet and beautiful while picking.

At one point I stood up and seen that the land right next to the patch was being tilled via horses. While picking, your view of that land is blocked via very tall growing weeds. The horses were so quiet that I never really heard them. Oh, how I wish I had a photo to show you. Imagine two rather large horses pulling a plow with a man at the reins. Next to him is his 2 or 3 year old son, who is just sitting there..not yelling, not screaming, not trying to jump off, just quietly sitting there along for the ride and trotting behind the ensamble is a small white and black dog. Really the only sounds you hear are an occasional jingle of the reins and the man’s gentle voice encouraging the horses. The sun is shining, but its not yet too hot in the day and there is blue skies and farm fields framing the farmer. It was all too serene and a beautiful image.

Between all of us we picked approximately 65 pounds of berries. I brought home 28 pounds, 8 of which are going to a friend. It took me about 3 hours to process 20 pounds. I made 8-16oz containers of freezer jam (one of these days I’m going to try canning the jam), about 5 quarts of frozen berries, some berries for shortcake and and approx. 3 quarts left for snacking. It was a great day!!!

Where is your favorite patch??? What do you make with the berries you pick? Do you grow your own? I’d love to hear….