So many strawberries!

We love to go strawberry picking!  Mainly because we love eating them so much, but also because it is something out of the normal that we don't get to do more than a couple times a year.  One of the homeschool groups we joined had a field trip to a strawberry patch, but you had to pay $7 per child and it didn't seem like you got many strawberries.  So when one of the other groups put a group together and you only had to pay $8 for each gallon bucket--and that price was for however many you could fit in there--I jumped at the chance.  We were supposed to go before our trip up to see my family, but we were rained out.  Which is why we were there this past Tuesday.

I had looked at the GPS before we left so I knew about how long it was going to take to get there.  We left later than I planned, thanks to the fact that our car has officially bit the dust.  Which means that when I need the Suburban we have to drop Hubby off at the church before leaving and then pray nothing comes up that he needs to go anywhere!  We were still going to get there on time though.  I took it as a good sign that I started seeing signs for a strawberry farm along the route we were driving.  I didn't look at the name of the farm.  After all, how many strawberry farms could possibly be along this one country road?

The answer is two.  I know this because we visited both of them on Tuesday.  I don't know about you, but when I can physically see my "destination" I stop paying attention to the GPS.  Which is why I turned in to the first strawberry farm I saw.  We saw a bunch of kids picking strawberries.  I knew there was going to be over 100 homeschoolers so I took this as a good sign.  I thought it was slightly odd that they were already out in the field since we were 10 minutes early, but it was my first time meeting up with this group, so I figured they just did things differently.

We parked, walked through a field of mud, and joined the crowd of people.  At which point I noticed that most of said people were actually small people.  As in pre-schoolers.  I am aware that homeschool outings almost always include the entire family, not just certain ages of kids, but it isn't usual for there to only be little kids running around.  I finally asked someone who looked like they were in charge where the homeschool group was.  She looked at me weird and asked if I was at the right farm.  I told her I was pretty sure I was, again, thinking how many farms could there be.  She asked me for the name of the group again, looked around, and informed me that she was pretty sure I was at the wrong place.  I start panicking a little wondering how I could have possibly been so wrong with the directions.  At which point she FINALLY informs me that there is another farm across the street.  I could have used that information 5 minutes ago, but whatever.  She didn't appear too happy to have to tell me about the other farm.  There is probably a strong rivalry going when you have two strawberry farms on the same road.

So we trek back across the muddy field and attempt to drive out amidst all the little munchkins running around.  I pull out of the wrong farm and immediately see a sign pointing across the street to the correct farm.  I did not see this large sign at all the first time I was on the road.  We pulled in and I noticed the large group of adults and children of all ages.  I also noticed their shirts which actually read "Bayou Cajun Homeschoolers."  Yep, we were in the right place!  Technically late, but still 15 minutes earlier than the rest of the people who showed up.

Number #2 decided to pick on her own

Needless to say, we had a great time.  Because they don't use any pesticides on their fruit we were able to eat as many strawberries as we wanted while we picked.  This worked awesome for #4.  I was able to pick strawberries to keep and every time she wanted to help I would let her pick one and eat it.  This kept her from caring that she wasn't actually putting any in the basket.  Don't judge me!  If you love trying to get little hands to carefully pick a berry and put it softly in a bucket instead of smushing it into a sticky mess, more power to you!  Me--I was just glad we were all able to walk away happy!

Fruits of our labor!  Get it--"fruits"  :-)

There is some angle food cake under those strawberries!