Day 1 - Way Fruit Farm

A few weeks ago, I registered for the Way Fruit Farm mailing list. Last Monday, I got an email letting me know that strawberry picking season was underway. With a warning that read "The longer you wait, the harder the picking gets", I figured Day 1 of summer vacation was the perfect time to head out to the fields.

Way Fruit Farm asks that you bring your own containers to fill (though they do sell boxes for those that come without) and that you stop inside the store to have them weighed before heading out to the fields. After getting our buckets weighed (1/4 pound each), we made a quick stop at the wooden John Deere tractor outside the store before crossing route 550 en route to the strawberry fields - roughly six acres worth.

My little berry pickers

The kids didn't wander too far into the fields before they started picking. I found it interesting that they'd pull just one or two strawberries off a plant before moving on to another one nearby, despite the fact that there were plenty of ripe strawberries on each plant.

My only complaint: the berries were much smaller than I was hoping for since I initially envisioned us melting Hershey's chocolate to make chocolate covered strawberries.  We'll just have to do that with store-bought berries instead.

Heading in with their harvest

When it was all said and done, the kids had just over four pounds of strawberries in their buckets (combined, not individually).  At $1.50 per pound, it seemed like a pretty good deal. We also picked up some fresh zucchini and yellow squash and a package of fruit pectin so that we can make jam with some of the harvest.

I found a recipe on the web that looks simple enough for even me to pull off and that will likely be on the agenda for tomorrow morning. The recipe calls for four cups of strawberries, four cups of sugar, one tablespoon of lemon juice and one tablespoon of fruit pectin.

Four cups of sugar seems pretty excessive to me... but I have never made jam before, so what do I know?  I figure I can start off with a little less sugar and then add it in if necessary.  Besides, if the kids don't know it is supposed to be ridiculously sweet, maybe I can get away with it.

Way Fruit Farm also has tart cherries for picking; the website says that the season starts in mid-July and runs through early August. Cherry picking could be fun... I'll be waiting for the email that lets me know when it's time to grab our buckets and head out to the fields!