It’s a Rite of Spring in our family: a trip to Sweetberry Farm to go strawberry picking.  I know we’ve gone at least five times, but this was a banner year for the strawberry crop.  Not only were the berries big, red, and plentiful, but you could smell them just walking through the fields.

The only problem with so many berries available was that it didn’t take very long to pick our fill.  We had two big boxes, and we had them stuffed within about 15 minutes.  Thankfully, there are other fun things to do at the farm.

The boys enjoyed running around in the wide open spaces.  Even with a blustery afternoon and dirt flying around everywhere, they ran and ran and ran…..and then begged me to make up obstacle course for them, too.

The Stowaway fell in love with the goats.  We pet the goats for a few minutes, and then she saw other people feeding them.  We then made good friends with the guy selling small containers of goat food, as she wasn’t satisfied with doing that just once (or even twice).

We brought our haul home, and The Monkey enthusiastically helped me clean all 10 pounds of fruit.

We rinsed the berries in a vinegar and water mix, and then he dried them in the salad spinner.  (Note to self: Kids are very willing to help when the salad spinner is involved.)  After naming pretty much each and every strawberry that he lifted out, we admired our bounty.

The next day, I found a recipe for chocolate shortcake.  Let me just tell you something right now: YUM.  There was plate licking involved.  I would have taken a photo to share with you, but then you’d be licking your monitor, and that’s not so healthy.

I’d like to tell you that the 10 pounds of strawberries lasted so long because they were fresh and not full of chemicals.  Alas, 10 pounds of strawberries lasted not quite four days in our house.  But it was a tasty four days.

Good health and great happiness to you.