This will come as no surprise to my long-time blog followers, but I just love fresh strawberries. There is nothing quite as delicious as a fresh strawberry right off the vine. A bite of strawberry is like a bite of summer sunshine.
We had a free day and visited a you-pick strawberry field. Little Buddy has matured a lot since last year and could actually do a decent job picking strawberries. Sure he picked a few of the green ones (which we added to our basket and paid for), but generally speaking, he could tell the difference between the ripe strawberries and the unripe ones.
The farm also had pre-picked strawberries that only cost a few more dollars per gallon than picking your own. Mr. Handsome started out by trying to convince me that we should only bring home strawberries that we had picked ourselves. He said it was cheating to buy strawberries from a you-pick farm. I decided that instead of debating, I would let the hot summer sun make my argument for me. It worked, and after a couple hours in the heat, Mr. Handsome declared that “rules are meant to be broken” and happily agreed to supplement our hand-picked strawberry supply with some pre-picked berries. My plan had worked.
On the way home, we stopped at a quaint little Amish restaurant and enjoyed some delicious Amish desserts. Mr. Handsome adored the pastry, and we all loved the chocolate milk.
The real treat, however, was the homemade, pectin-free strawberry jam (link below). The process of making it is long but completely worth it.
Link to Strawberry Jelly Recipe
Has anyone else had a chance to pick strawberries this year?