I found out the other day that a local place has u-pick strawberries for sale! It was $10 a gallon, which is not much different from the store, but I had the guarantee that these strawberries were picked at the peak of ripeness, and were extremely fresh. My sister watched my two children, while I took her two oldest and our other sister’s two children (ages 7-10). We picked 5 gallons, and the time went by fast.

When we were kids, we’d go strawberry-picking every year, but that farm closed down several years ago. It seemed like we picked strawberries for hours, and then we had to drive home, and spend yet more hours “putting them up” — washing, hulling, slicing and freezing them. It seemed like a lot of work (and I’m sure it was, at the time), but we got the reward of strawberry shortcake for dessert, plus bags and bags of frozen strawberries throughout the year.

I’m looking for a blueberry u-pick farm in the vicinity. Yum!