Pick Your Own "Straw-breeze"

I'm somewhat new to the "pick your own" concept. Personally, I think it's genius.  It's a win-win situation.  The farm gets the public to harvest their fruits and veggies for them, and the customer gets to "experience" the farm and create a "family tradition".  Granted you are normally required to purchase about three times more produce than you actually will ever use, but it's all about the experience, right?  And the photo ops...

So, Colin and I headed to Fitchs Farm Market bright and early this morning. On the ride over, Colin looked out the car window and said "Hiiii McDonalds!"  I was slightly perplexed. Where did he learn McDonalds? So, I asked him. "Who takes you to McDonalds Colin?" After about 30 seconds of hysterical laughter he yelled out "Daddy!" Busted. I guess I should be happy he didn't say "Hiiii BW3!" right?  Another good reason to head to a farm and bring home a ridiculous number of strawberries!

We were the first to arrive.  I'm never late.  I like to be early actually.  The farm created slight hysteria on their website allowing the public to think they were "low on supply" so I wasn't about to miss out on this nostalgic family moment because we slept in.  Wait, who am I kidding.  I was up at 4:45 - there is no sleeping in at the Beirne house (unless you're Pat)! And who were they kidding?  There were about a million rows of strawberries to pick!

So we hopped on the tractor, grabbed our four quart straw baskets and were off - about to cross another item off our Summer Bucket List, and take a few (ahem, hundred) pictures. 

To say we had a blast is an understatement.  Colin ate "straw-breeze" non-stop while I was furiously picking them to keep up with demand. "I need more Mama!"  I have no idea how we actually filled the entire basket?  He loved crawling on the ground looking for the berries that were "hidin' in the flowers".  "I found one mama - I pick it!"  He was so proud of himself every time he found a berry and put it in the basket, which was followed by him taking it out of the basket and eating it.

Dressing Colin in red was a strategic move on my part, and proved to be quite practical.  Those berries were juicy, and Colin is a boy - so they got everywhere.  His shorts, shirt, face, ankles.  The one thing I didn't prepare for was the straw which is all around the base of the plants, right where the berries are.  I'm allergic to straw, wood chips, sawdust and the like.  While Colin left the farm covered in red berry juice, I was covered in red hives.

It really was a win-win situation.  We got a tractor ride, a pair of strawberry stained shorts, $9 worth of berries, 246 pictures, and some wonderful memories.  The farm got 2 hours of free labor and our repeat business.  I can already see the pictures of Jack and Colin in matching red shirts next June.

Now it's time to figure out what to do with all these "straw-breeze"?!