"Help I'm bleeding!" or strawberry picking with the Girlies
Ahhh June...how do we love thee?
Scraped knees & elbows, wedding anniversary, flowers and gardens coming alive and STRAWBERRY PICKING SEASON!
We went on our annual Strawberry Hunt last week. Okay, so it's not so much hunting as picking (and hoping that most of the berries end up in the buckets and not in the tummy!). We have a PYO strawberry farm near us and so far we've always had a gorgeous day to go picking (weather- sunny but not too hot, bugs are at a minimum, kids are happy).
I decided to turn the bulk of our strawberries into strawberry freezer jam (using Ball's No Cook Freezer Jam pectin- thanks to a fellow blogger- it uses way less sugar than the Certo brand pectin & I'm all about using less sugar!).
Bummer- I didn't take a photo of the jars filled with strawberry jam goodness...we got 10 half pints plus one full pint jar of jam that are now getting cozy in our chest freezer. Just imagine opening a jar of that in the middle of winter when it's -30F outside and feeling like it's summer all over again!
That's supposed to be a kid-friendly knife- just in case you're wondering! Annika was a huge help this year cleaning and gutting the berries. 
Of course Annika only about half a dozen times came up to me while picking claiming she was bleeding....she loves making "jokes" and trying to fool people. Funny. Me thinks I need to pick her up a joke book from the library.
I guess you could say I'm hooked on strawberries! What are you hooked on? Come see what others are hooked on today at Hooked on Houses!
Some of my favorite memories are of helping my mom pick strawberries. It was a tedious job, but I'm sure even more cumbersome for our mother. What a glorious summertime ritual, and you're so right--nothing like a taste of summer when you open up that jam jar this winter!
Where is the PYO farm? Vespermans?
Yes, we went to the Vesperman's to pick (that's where we've been going for the past three years). Sadly, they're already finished for the season. I know there are other PYO farms around but the only one that I can think off the top of my head is located south of Madison. I believe there are a few around the Dubuque area.
Oh...I could pick strawberries all day long, every day- especially if the weather is nice.
Pretty pictures, and gosh - that's a lot of berries! I picked 4 berries today and was happy about it!
Oh my gosh I so want strawberries right now! Your girls are just adorable, how fun!
You are doing all the right things with your girls. Keep it up.
what a darling adventure.
I love strawberrys-- forever!
TTFN~~Claudia
If only there were a strawberry field where only chocolate covered strawberries grew! (sigh).
Great pics - cute girlies!
Same here, I have some lovely memories of picking (and eating... and eating some more). Strawberries are very hard to beat when they're at their best.
Lovely photos!