Picking Strawberries

A big family goal this year is to buy or pick and preserve as much local food as we can as it comes into season. So far we've been eating lots and lots of asparagus and rhubarb from the farmers market and we have been really falling in love with simple fresh eating!

Last weekend we picked organic strawberries together at Carmody Farms in Marne. We had a great time and came home with three flats of beautiful berries. They are smaller, but don't even compare to the pesticide laden huge ones that come from the grocery store. I will never buy those awful things again!

The girls had fun. They were great helpers for about the first hour, but got board and ended up playing in the lane on a picnic blanket with a few other kids who had tired of picking with their families.

thankfully as they showed us which row to pick, they gave instructions to eat as many berries as you want! The kids took full advantage, especially Daisy!

I spent the rest of the weekend in the kitchen with their sweet smell, washing and cutting their tops off.

Sunday morning we ate homemade waffles with strawberry sauce.

We froze most of them and I made two batches of strawberry jam.

I also canned some rhubarb sauce. It was very easy- just cook it down with a 1/4 cup of water and 3/4 of a cup of sugar. Oh, it's so amazing. I have heard we should try it on pork chops, but I know it's also going to be great on ice cream!

The thing I love the most about this journey, is realizing that these things are not as difficult as I imagine them to be, and they are also much more rewarding than I expected. Give it a try, I think you'll be surprised!