Saturday, May 19, 2012

Strawberry Fields Forever

I just made my 12-year-old cry.  I'm not proud of that fact; I'm just putting it out there.

Larry doesn't have the funny hat.  Yet.
Larry's off on a Boy Scout bicycling trip that was SUPPOSED to provide him with quality time to spend with David and Brian.  But David had a scheduling conflict this weekend and Brian has a nasty chest cold, so Larry ended up taking Theo (who was supposed to cook me dinner) and left me with everyone else.  Something's wrong here.  I just can't figure out what.



We picked strawberries yesterday at a quasi-local farm.  As usual, we ate plenty in the fields to make up for the fact that it costs more to pick them ourselves than it does when we DON'T provide the labor.  After Larry paid for our flats of berries,  I asked him, "So what did that add up to?"

"You don't want to know," said he.

He's right.

All of which is to say that today I made the world's most expensive strawberry jam.  It's good, all right.

But it's not THAT good.



[Boy Scout bicycle ad: Bisikletci]
[Strawberry Jam image: Homemade Gifts Made Easy]

13 comments:

  1. Ignorance, my dear, is bliss. I think the going rate around here for U-Pick is about $2.50 a quart, though. But we had 6 people picking; and if you drive 40 minutes to get to the place, it just doesn't feel right to spend less than that amount of time in the fields. So we have A LOT of strawberries.

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  2. I saw them for sale at the farmer's market for $6.00 a pint Or quart? You know, one of those green cardboard boxes) this a.m. And I paid $4.00 for a pint of fresh strawberries from the CSA. Of course I didn't have to drive 40 miles and pick them. I would though, one day, just once, pick some strawberries, but I can't get anyone in my family to go with me and I'll be darned if I'll drive all that way just to go by myself.

    I make my 13 yo cry all the time. I don't intend to, he's just moody that way.

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  3. AnonymousMay 19, 2012

    Wow. Here it's always cheaper to pick your own, which is why I do it. It's not that I love squatting in a field till my thighs ache to get those fresh sweet berries. It's cuz I'm cheap! Also, the farms are only about a 5 minute drive from here.

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  4. I don't want to rub it in but I bought amazing strawberries this week at publix they were two for $5.00.

    I think you need to look at it as "making memories"

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  5. Well, you'll be stocked up for awhile, anyway.
    And I'm assuming the 12yo got over it, and I'm sure is back to his regular self by now.

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  6. You would love the Strawberry Festival out here in Oxnard. I'm not a huge fan of strawberries. I like them but never crave them. Until I went to the Festival and ate some and now can't buy any at any price because they're never going to be as good. So they ruined me. Put a price tag on that!

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  7. I once heard someone say that those places where you pick your own fruit should weigh everyone when they come in and then again when they leave so they could tell how many berries they ate, and charge them accordingly.

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  8. My husband spotted the first cherries of the season this weekend and promptly added them to the grocery basket. I didn't find out until they were rung up that they were $18 for the bag. Okay, he loves cherries and I have been heard to say that I'll buy them as long as they're in season because he's seriously fruit and veg challenged and it's one of the few fruits he will eat as long as we have it. But yikes! I guess I must love him, because I didn't start an argument over the price in the checkout line!

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  9. The last time I went to pick strawberries, there were 11 of us. The good news is the event included a hayride to the fields; the bad news is that I really REALLY needed to pee and there were no toilets nearby. I'm not anxious to repeat that experience.

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  10. AnonymousMay 21, 2012

    But you'll have those memories of picking that are priceless, right?

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  11. You were paying for the memories . . .

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  12. So why did the 12-year-old cry?? Was he also upset at the price of the strawberries?

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