I Had To Yoke The Kids

We had so many strawberries, I had to yoke them so we could carry them all!

Just kidding. But they were grunting, and whining and sweating buckets by the time we were done!

We went to the strawberry farm today, which is right down the road from our house. I figured we'd head out early in the morning to beat the heat, so we left around 10:30 and it was still cool outside. Less than a half hour in, we took off our coats because we were already sweating!

Picking strawberries is hard work to say the least; all that bending over, and squatting. And dirty work too! My fingernails are stained red from all the juice.
But we had a lot of fun, despite the crankiness of a few children. I got two boxes full, like you see up top. I wanted to get enough to do a couple batches of jam. I figured we would have a lot, but not as much as we did. I was actually worried I wouldn't have enough when I got home, so that is why picked so many, as I did not want to have to come back later in the week.

We came home with 30lbs of strawberries! 30 freakin' pounds! I had the boy carry a box of them to the van, and he was just a grunting away, until he was finally able to let them down, and let out a big, relieved sigh. I also had a very upset toddler, as she was under the impression she got to keep the strawberries in her basket. She didn't' care to dump them out into the box to be weighed.

Today I froze some, to save for later this winter. And tomorrow I am going to make jam! I actually do not have enough canning jars, so I have to get some more tomorrow.

I really didn't think it was possible to get 30lbs of strawberries, but I was proved wrong!

Does anyone have any good recipes? we've been eating them like there is no tomorrow, but after awhile, even fresh picked strawberries can taste like garbage.