Saturday, June 6, 2009

Strawberries, lots and lots of strawberries!

So, today was my birthday, and besides having a grad party to go to, we wanted to go strawberry picking! I called the other day, and they said picking starts on June 3rd, so it was planned! We got a later start than we wanted, since we were all up very late with a nice game of Phase 10 with friends.. so we didn't leave the house til 12:30 or so (intended to leave around 10!) Oh well.. right? So, we get to the strawberry picking place - a 25 or so minute drive from home, Gwen is super excited about it, and well.. so am I! AND the place is CLOSED!! The sign says, "sorry, all picked out!" grrr! Oh well, we venture over to Brandon and Ro's, since Gwen and I hadn't seen the new place yet, and it was close by and got to visit for a bit, see the adorable little chickens they have and all the progress they're making on the house as well as a venture into the forest AND a 4 wheeler ride! Weee!! We came home, and I called a couple other strawberry farms in the area (1 hour away) and we decided to go to the grad party for a bit, then take off early and get to the farm, they were open til 7.. we got there at 6, and it was so perfect!! There was another family gathering berries, with the mom teaching me a thing or two about making jams (which was my intent with some of our harvest!) We picked 9 quarts, which I didn't think was too many... Gwen even filled her quart box once! We also took plenty of berries out in our bellies! (esp. Gwen!!) It turned out to be a really great day! For some strange reason, I felt pretty ambitious after returning home at 8pm.. I went to the store and got canning supplies! We made 11 8oz jars of Strawberry and Strawberry/rhubarb jam!! I can't believe I just canned food!! It was so rewarding when the lids did that pop noise after being in the water bath! I'm totally excited about this.. can you tell!? hehee I guess we'll have to wait until tomorrow to see how it actually turns out (and crap! we're outta bread! haha) Here are some picture from our day!
The picking begins!

Gwen finds a good one..and a tasty one too!
Shaun loooooooooves the strawberry
Look at this!!
Shaun is overjoyed!!
Look at all the strawberries we gathered!!
Shaun made me an ice-cream birthday cake! I'm 15 again!! YAY!
Shaun does the tough part of not getting burned while transferring jars..
Our first strawberry jam!! WOOHOO!

9 comments:

Juliet said...

That looks like so much fun! A friend of ours recently gave us some strawberry jam that he'd made, and I ate it with scones and whipped cream. Yummo!

still life angie said...

Strawberries are my favorite food bar none. And strawberry picking is a ton of fun, though more go in than I care to admit! What a wonderful birthday! Your canning looks very professional.

Mom said...

What a grand birthday you had. Visiting friends, a homemade ice cream cake from Shaun, Strawberry picking and then doing your first jam canning. I'm very proud of you. Now you can make other types of jam too.

Melissa said...

So one of those jars are for me...right? Hehe...just kidding!

I'm so glad you were able to go strawberry picking! This is now on my to do list for this summer.
What a fun filled day it sounds like you had. :D

Fireflyforever said...

Happy birthday Shannon :)

Michelle R said...

awesome :)

Michelle S. said...

the strawberries look awesome! Happy belated by the way, we had meant to call you Saturday and lost track of time!

Brandon Mitchell said...

We're glad you guys were able to make it out! IN YO FACE!!!

Dalene said...

I LOVE picking my own strawberries, but I always have to drag Chris because he says he feels like a migrant worker. Sadly, no picking for me this year, as it's too difficult to bend over with my big belly.

Happy belated bday to you!