It's Berry Time!

So, my friend Sarah is here for several day, which is why you haven't hear much from me.  We have been enjoying living life together.  It's so not right that she lives thousands of miles away!

One of the things that we were all excited to do was go pick strawberries.  This was something I knew I couldn't do without help, and she is original a country kid from West Michigan, so berry picking is second nature to her.  So, we trekked the 40 minutes one way to AJ's Berry Farm.  And boy, were we rewarded!  It was some of the easiest picking I can remember.  The boys loved it, and with two of us, we just put them in between us on the row.

Elliot couldn't stop picking and eating.  He would take a bit out of a berry, and then being the helpful kid he is, would contribute the rest of that berry to the boxes.  He walked around most the time with 3 or 4 half eaten berries smashed in his hand.  Oh, he was funny!  Juice running down his face, talking the whole time about berries, and cars, and picking and sorting and moving berries.

Forrest was, not surprisingly, less annimated.  He was more content to pick the largest, redest, juicest berries from the boxes, or ask for us to find his a big red one on the bush.  I finally told him he needed to hunt his own berries.

We managed to get 17 quarts to take home and a quart in tummies in about a half an hour!  Which was just the right amount of time for the boys.   Oh, and see that half eaten berry?  Yeah, there was more than one still in the boxes when we got home.

Most of those are in the freezer now, so that we can pull it out and taste summer in November.  We were going to attemp jam last night, but then we realized we were out of lids. Which really wasn't the big of a disappointment, because we really didn't want to make jam last night.

So today, we will get to the store, and maybe, just maybe tackle that tonight.  I am so thankful Sarah loves just living life with us!