Strawberry Time!

Yum! Hand-picked strawberries!!, originally uploaded by msbellee.

It's that time again in the Carolinas: strawberry pickin' time!

The boys made the trip down to the Bush-N-Vine in York Co., SC, where they picked 3 gallons of the most beautiful, sweet, juicy, perfect berries you've ever seen. These are NOTHING like the store bought kind. These are the honest-to-goodness real thing. The ones from the store have no taste whatsoever in comparison with these. These will blow you away!



When I bit into the first berry it was like a little taste of heaven. These are the best ones I've tasted in a few years due to the drought. There was apparently enough rain this year to make them sweet and juicy, something the last few years' have not quite been. Though they were good, they weren't this good!



There was a mutant berry in the lot. I picked up this one and just had to laugh when I saw it.

Of course, I had to get a picture of it since it reminded me of a huge nose or maybe even a cartoon-like hippo thingy. It even stood up all by itself as if it had legs! I posed this question on Flickr: "What do you see?" Visit the picture to see the comments people made by clicking on the photo. It's interesting what everyone sees in it.



I ate my fill of strawberries, popping one right after the other. So did Kevin. He did tell me, however, that he ate so many in the field while picking that he didn't want any more for a while. I think I could eat them all day long and never get sick of them! There will be strawberry shortcake, and jam made as well. I'll make smoothies and milkshakes, have berries on cereal, berries dipped in chocolate, and berries with bananas on ice cream topped with chocolate syrup for a sundae. I'll put fresh berries in Kevin's lunch and put berries in the freezer (if there are any left!). Then we'll have to go back and get some more!

Berries like this only come once a year. Twice if you're lucky and catch them in both North Carolina and South Carolina. I'm all for getting them again when they ripen in North Carolina. But for now I'm very happy with these. As I can't squat or bend for any amount of time due to my bum knee and bad back, I am left with the pleasure of washing, capping, cutting and eating them (oh, and photographing them!). I do appreciate the effort the boys put into the harvest. They did a terrific job and got some beauties. Thanks boys!

I'll leave you with this pretty little butterfly I saw yesterday. When Kevin went out to 'skate' in the driveway, I noticed this little beauty next to the garage door. It must have been stunned or something because it didn't move when I approached it. So I ran and got the camera to get a picture. It obliged.

It eventually did recover and went on its merry way. It was fun getting that close to a butterfly and not having it fly off immediately.

So until next time, I hope you find a pick-your-own farm near you and take home as many strawberries as you possibly can pick!