(a few medium sized Blueberries from Sauvie Island)I had heard stories from Jeff's childhood about family trips to Sauvie Island so I was excited to see it for myself. When we first arrived at the farm, I was impressed with its serenity. The sun was warm but not roasting, we were ready for hard work so we each grabbed 2 green tubs and started picking. 45 minutes later, we trucked down the hill to the stand to weigh our produce and I was amazed to find we had picked 10 pounds of blueberries between Jeff and myself! (I had picked 7 pounds, Jeff picked 3.) :0)
Susie treated us all to flavored Honey Stix and we drove on until we came to a barn-like building which happened to be Kruger Farmers Market. There we asked if there were strawberries to pick (which I later learned are best for picking in June.)
Kruger Farmer's Market on Sauvie Island with Strawberry fields in the foreground.
The lady working at the counter seemed skeptical but said we could try finding them if we wanted to and gave us directions to the nearest field. From the car it looked like there were plenty of strawberries, but with closer examination we discovered that glimpses of red were just the reddish brown leaves being deceptive. As we walked along the rows, we would each exclaim with childlike excitement when we found a berry. We searched for a while in this field with dismal success and found a total of 7 strawberries between the four of us! Those berries were exceptionally tiny and therefore surprisingly sweet- most of them too sun-dried to keep.
(not the smallest strawberry we picked)Among the strawberry bushes, I spotted a tiny baby froggy. It was a little bigger than a quarter. It was so cute hopping quickly along the rows of deserted strawberry plants. I've decided I want a pet baby froggy... maybe even more than I want a dog. Jeff tried to take its photo with his phone but it was too quick so the picture didn't turn out so well.
After scanning the field for strawberries, we moved along to another field down the way. To our disappointment, we didn't see many at first. The bright red against the green leaves sounds like it would be hard to miss, though at top glance the plants looked barren. What I didn't realize was how deep I had to search within the plant to find the berries.
All of a sudden I saw one peaking out from under the green leaves like a bright jewel flickering in the sunlight. Then I found another...
and a few more...
and a few more...
Once we got the hang of it, there was no stopping us. An hour and a half later we drove back to the stand to weigh our collective efforts and had picked a total 5.3 pounds of fresh strawberries. Susie said I could have all the strawberries because she still had some in her freezer from last time.
So, what will I do with 15 pounds of berries, you ask?
First I washed and froze all of the strawberries because they don't keep as well as blueberries. I will make blueberry muffins, strawberry jam, blueberry scones, strawberry ice cream, blueberry pancakes, use some for Green Smoothies, eat some plain of course and freeze the rest for later!
Look for future posts on how I end up using all these berries.
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