A few weekends ago, we took a family trip to a local strawberry farm to pick strawberries. With the unusually warm temperatures came an early strawberry season! But none of us are complaining!
When I was a kid, my mom would take us strawberry picking every year. We would drive around Plant City, Florida looking for the U-pick signs and taste testing one or two until we found a field with strawberries that were naturally sweet. We would pick coolers full of strawberries and taste-test them while we picked. Afterwards, we would take them home where my mom would clean and cut every single strawberry. Some would be frozen for ice cream toppings, some would be made into pie or cobbler, some would be saved for snack time, and the rest were made into strawberry jam. We made so much strawberry jam! These little jars of strawberry jam were used as teacher and neighbor gifts throughout the year. These days are stained with sweet strawberry juice in my mind and some of my favorite childhood memories.
I was so excited to take Elliott strawberry picking this year and start some of those same traditions with my own child. She wasn’t too keen on the actual picking but she loved the taste-testing part! I lost count on how many she ate! She would eat the whole thing, leaves and all, haha! The best part was her sweet little chin stained red with strawberry juice and her huge smile! Now I’ve just gotta get to making all that jam!