Summer's Begun!

As a kid, summer began when we finished our last (half) day of school and Mom picked us up and took us strawberry picking. I guess we didn't do that every year, but I remember doing it a number of times. We'd pile trays full of berries, and the next few days would be spent in the kitchen capping the berries and making jam. Ok, mostly Mom was the one in the kitchen, but I do remember capping enough strawberries that I'd have pink fingers for a few days, so I must have helped some. 

Frankly, my mom was one of those amazing women who had a garden and grew a lot of our veggies as well as picking fruit to can each year. She spent hours, even days, in her hot kitchen putting up food for the rest of the year. And that was before she had central air put in. 

I still remember that big green box fan sitting in the doorway from the laundry room blasting slightly cooler air into the steaming hot kitchen. 

I also remember having home-canned peaches and pears in my lunch every day for years because of her hard work. There was also homemade applesauce; peach, cherry, and strawberry jam; homemade pickles; candied apples; frozen corn (store-bought can't even come close!); and that's to say nothing of the meat grown on the farm and butchered for us. 

See? I told you she was amazing!

Well, I'm not making homemade jam (not this year anyway), but we did kick-start the summer with a strawberry picking trip now that school is out. We've picked apples in the fall a number of times, but berry-picking was a new experience for the kids. So when our neighbor suggested it, we were excited to go along. 

We drove about 50 minutes northwest toward the Shenandoah mountains. The kids said it seemed like we were in the wilderness. I quickly informed them that they sure were city kids! It was no more remote there than where I grew up. But it was nice to leave suburbia for a few hours and breathe some fresh, mountain air. 

They all quite enjoyed our morning of picking, and we came home with a good stash...about 10 quarts or so. The boys picked most of the berries and did a good job of getting just the red ones. Since I had an unhappy baby either strapped to my back or trying to escape from me most of the time and Elsa kept stealing berries from my container to add to hers, I think I only filled one or two boxes. 

Here is Elsa with our neighbor.

She picked a few.

This girl kept trying to eat the berries out of my box.

Here are the orchards where they grow cherries
and apricots as well as other berries. We might
have to go back soon!

Very tasty!

My helpers

Now what to do with all these berries? We ate
a quart before we ever left the parking lot, but
there were nine quarts left. Half have been
frozen for smoothies; the other half are in the
fridge for munching.

So much better than the ones I find in the store!!