Strawberry Picking Time!!

Yeah, yeah, yeah!!  I think I was the most excited person in Charleston to hear that the strawberries were ready for picking at the farm!!  It has been several months- too many to count- since we have had any berries in our house!  So, Saturday morning, bright and early, we were up and dressed and out the door by 9am to get in the strawberry fields!  Those of you who know our family, know this is a huge accomplishment for us.  We do not get too many places early in the morning, except for our backyard!  But, I could literally taste the sweet strawberry juice in my mouth, so out the door we went!  This is really one of my favorite things to do with my kids and myself.  You really cannot get much better than walking into a field of fresh strawberries warm from the sunshine just waiting to pop in your mouth!  Magical!  Plus, Farmer Pete practices sustainable/organic farming, so no sprays for the beautiful berries.  This means you can literally eat them right in the field, of course a little dirt is on them.  But, really we all could benefit from a little dirt now and then.  Don't you remember the saying your mother/grandmother would say "God made dirt, and dirt don't hurt"!!  I just love seeing the red juice dribbling down my boy's chins, and hearing them in awe over the biggest strawberries!  Of course, being true to boys, they always have to have a contest on who can pick the biggest berry!  I think in a matter of 20 minutes we had picked over 5lbs of berries!  Strawberry shortcake was on the menu that night at our house, so I had to make sure enough berries would make the car ride home for that!  I used an old fashion recipe for homemade short cake and real whipped cream made from real cream.  Oh my goodness, there will never be another container of cool whip or angel food cake in my house!!  There is no comparison- real whipped cream is amazing!!  And so easy to make- just get some real cream and put it in a bowl with 2-4tbls sugar and get to whipping- it takes a few minutes to get thick, but it is oh so worth the wait!!   Update on eggs in incubator- we candled on day 14 and saw a lot of baby embryos inside this time- very excited!!  Hatch Day- day 21- is this Saturday!!  Lots of planting going on, too- Tomatoes in the ground, cukes, squash, corn- just need this cooler weather to take a hike!!