Strawberries!

Today, we crawled out of bed early in order to go strawberry picking at Jester Creek Farms near Newton.

Then we saw lightning, heard thunder, and I discovered James had to go outside in the middle of the  night as our gate had been blown off during a heat burst (it was 102 F at 12:45 am!).  Still, it was only sprinkling on and off, and we were planning to pick with my mom, sister, and BiL.  Off we went...

When we arrived, she was a little surprised to see us, as she wasn't sure we would come in the rain, but it didn't look like the weather would necessarily be better later, so pick we would!  Pick we did.  James carried Bear Cub Q for a while, then my sister held him when she was done with her share.  The Screamer held a basket and graciously allowed me to fill it for her.  The Assistant picked sporadically (and spastically... am I allowed to say that) and then allowed me to graciously fill her basket also.  Wasn't that kind of them?

21 quarts later (for the whole family)
11 quarts later (for our family)... we had a blast.

Half of our household's harvest

When we reached home, I went to work, washing, sorting, and slicing strawberries.  8 cups were mashed to 5 cups and frozen for strawberry jam.  Some were reserved for fruit crumble.  Two quarts were sliced for fresh eating.  More were sliced and frozen for homemade shakes.

Sorting (ripe from unripe and sunburned, as well as straw)

Mashing to freeze.
We will be making strawberry jam later...

 Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.