Friday, June 4, 2010

Strawberry Picking

We headed down to Shaw Orchards on the border of PA and MD to pick strawberries. They charge $5 to take the tractor out to the fields (for anyone who can walk) and then they allow you to put that $5 towards what you pick. The strawberries were $1.50 a pound and if we were to fill the box pictured below we would have picked 10 pounds and have $15 worth of strawberries. This was our goal. It was near 90 degrees today and we did this at 2 p.m. Lesson learned - pick in the morning, they open at 8 a.m. Mary wore Matthew in the Ergo and he only handled a few minutes of picking before getting fussy. We were the only ones out, so I took him and fed him under some shade. I decided we had better stick to the shade since it was so hot outside. I kept him entertained for a bit and then Mary took a turn. Once he was at his limit and Mary had a sufficient headache from the sun, we decided it was time to go back. Our strawberries weighed in at just under 9 pounds. We ALMOST got our money's worth and we kept our sanity at the same time. I'd say that is a successful trip!

The fruits of our labors.
Mary and Matthew waiting to take the tractor out to the strawberry fields.
The crew heading out.
Mary doing her job in the heat of the sun.
Matthew and me hanging out in what little shade we could find under some apple trees.

6 comments:

Old Matt said...

Well written and interesting, as always. Matt4 is really looking good. :)

Brian & Chelsey said...

Fun times! Yay for warm (hot in your case!) weather and swimming! i cant wait to take Brax! I LOVE Lil Matthews swim shorts!! are they baby gap? CUTE! Miss you and cant wait to see you again!

Music Mama said...

How fun! Will you be making freezer jam with those berries? I loved the pool pics and the Amish Scooter. Oh, and the covered bridge made me remember my time in Ohio :)

Robyn said...

Chels - yes the swimsuit is from Baby Gap. I just fell in love with it and watched it and got it on a killer sale. Andrea - I decided to freeze the strawberries whole. Matt isn't crazy about freezer jam - will only eat grape jelly. Since I still have lots of peach and blackberry jam to consume that I made last year, I opted out of making jam, although that's what I would have enjoyed the most.

Jackie said...

That last picture of Matthew is hil.ari.ous!

Marian said...

He is so funny - that closed mouth smile! See ya soon.