'Tis the Season to go Picking

What a lovely day! And we thought we would get some berries while the gettin's good. We went with our friend, Amy, and her son (Winn's buddy), Josh, out to Chiles Peach Orchard's strawberry patch.

 

When I conceived of the idea, I had this romantic vision of me picking berries in a white flowing linen dress and bringing them to my husband and daughter sitting close by on a picnic blanket under lovely asian inspired umbrella. Schaun would quickly clean them and hand them off to our friends who would dip them in some homemade lemon curd and sit idly enjoying the day. I wouldn't get the tiniest stain on my dress and we'd all have a jolly afternoon. Very Victorian era.

What really happened was barely throwing on some jeans and combing my hair (barely) and hauling ourselves out the patch where it would be incredibly awkward carrying our children on our backs (or fronts...depends on the baby carrier) while we tried to pick enough berries to make our HUGE containers look remotely full. Amy finally released Josh into the patch so he could bash around among the berries. And I finally set Winnie down in the patch where she was content to pick berry after berry and shove them into her mouth in succession. By the time we were done, she was drenched in strawberry juice from head to toe.

After the picking was done we sampled all the strawberry treats the orchard had to offer in its cafe (strawberry donuts, strawberry fudge, strawberry milkshake...very Forrest Gump) and drove our screaming children home for naps. It was a fantastic excursion that we hope to repeat next year!

Amy and Josh - excellent friends and great company!

Josh having a ball running around.

Winnie found the strawberries. 

And more strawberries.

And then there was more.

This is us...no white dress but awfully romantic anyway.

p.s. I did make some freezer jam that was delicious but *gasp* I forgot to take pictures :)