Strawberries!

It's strawberry season!  Yay!  I love strawberries.  We have fruit shakes often in this house and they pretty much always have strawberries.  It was desperate times when we had to stoop to buying imported stawberries this winter because we ran out of our frozen ones.  They are barely even strawberries, first of all they are excessively large, then there is the fact that when you bite into one, it is white inside.  Don't even get me started on the taste!

The next few weeks are busy for us.  Next week we are going away and although I will be back the beginning of July, my husband is staying away until July 19th!  I knew if we didn't get out to get strawberries together this weekend, we likely wouldn't at all.

The season just started last Wednesday and we went out on Friday.  We chose a U-pick place outside the city, knowing it would be less busy and cheaper.  We were right on both counts!

I look silly in the photo below, but wanted to include it for a few reasons.  First, that's a new skirt I made.  It's my least favourite of the bunch, but it's still pretty cute.  Second, there is our Finished screened in porch in the background.  We've been enjoying sitting out on the porch at night and not having to worry about the bugs.  Alain is pretty much a construction genius.  We finished the project for about $350.  There are still minor finishing touches, but it's usuable at this point, which is great.  I think it will be a great place to play with a baby too, it's nice and shady during the day.

Here is me in one of my alternate personas - I call me "garden girl" when I wear this hat (which is often when I'm outside).  I didn't make the hat, although I should maybe make myself a bucket hat!  Hmmmmm.  I bought this hat before I started sewing again.

Here is Alain picking.  His basket is empty, but he really is a very good berry picker.  He worked at a strawberry patch as a kid so he really knows his way around a strawberry patch (metaphorically, of course).

Here are the fruits of our labors (literally):

That is 16 litres of strawberries picked in about 40 minutes.  The field was just filled with strawberries it was so easy to fill these baskets.  We went around 7:00 and the sun was dipping a little and there was a gorgeous breeze.  It was the best time for picking.  We came home and froze about 12 litres of them on cookie sheets.  Then we put them in large freezer bags to use all year long. 

We also made homemade strawberry ice cream.  It is just about the best thing ever.

I found out later that we got a pretty good deal on the berries.  We paid $7.50 for 4 Litres.  Our friend in the city paid $10 per 4 litres when she picked berries at a field in town.