Picking Strawberries

We set off early Saturday morning for strawberry picking as it was to soar into the upper 80’s. I like to be done by 10AM at the latest. The picking opens at 8AM at Atlas Farms, an organic farm near us.

The sign out front said 2 things:

• The price was $2.75/lb.
• The picking “was not their best” this year

I grabbed a map and it indicated where I had picked so well last year was also the best this year. So I took a wagon and headed out for that field.

They weren’t kidding, the picking was terrible. I have long arms and can pick 2 rows at once. Where I am sitting is where I started the 2nd flat. I started the first one down by the tall grass. That’s an awful long ways to have to pick 2 rows to get 1 flat.

They said between the cold, bad soil conditions, and some other problems, the crop wasn’t very good this year. Unfortunately, they are the best for organic produce near to us. So I just kept picking.

My husband came back to get me at the time I would normally have picked 2 flats. He helped me fill the first and we both did the second.

This little girl was working near us picking and singing and humming to herself. It was a real sweet point during the picking. I think she said she was 6 years old.

This is how far we picked 2 rows and my husband worked on part of a 3rd.

The trek back to the farm store.

This is the soaked to the knees in dew and strawberry juice look….

We’d picked 28¾ lbs of strawberries in 2 hours. Truly terrible picking. We got 17¾ quarts plus the 2 bowls full of strawberries for shortcake.

This is Saturday night’s supper:

https://steemit.com/cooking/@goldenoakfarm/strawberry-shortcake-with-whipped-cream

My goal is at least 35# so a small flat on Sunday morning will finish it up. When we paid for the berries they said a field near the store might be better, so I will try that on Sunday.