Pickin' Strawberries.

Growing up in Louisiana, we had a plethera of u-pick farm options when it came time for strawberry season. One of my fondest memories as a child was visiting the strawberry plantations. We would literally fill multiple five gallon buckets full of fresh, farm grown strawberries. When were finished, we'd come back to the plantation house and there would be a home cooked Southern spread, hot and ready for us to eat.

Last year was the first year that I had even heard that we had a farm where you could pick your own berries, but since we welcomed Tyler into the world at the same time peak strawberry season happens, going to pick strawberries last year was out of the question. So this year, when time came, I knew that we would be ready. And ready we were.

The strawberry patch is actually on the same farmland that we visit to pick our own pumpkins every fall. The fields look so different without the pumpkins there, but it didn't keep the boys from romping around in the tall grass.


we pulled Ty along in the wagon, which he just wasn't quite sure about.

we met up with some of our neighbor friends, so the kids had fun taking turns pulling one another in the wagon.

the lady at the farm gave us our instructions, assigned us a row, and off we went!

one of the great things about picking your own strawberries is that this patch doesn't use pesticides, so the boys were able to pick and eat right there off the bush. That was a BIG hit with the boys, especially Connor.



Tyler didn't do much pickin', except for grabbing a few leaves. Oops!

so proud of all of their hard work!

the boys played around the farm a bit more before we headed home... bug finding was the next order of business.

(can you see all of the leftover strawberry remnants on Tyler's face? He approved!)




he's such a mess.

Connor, arranging a bouquet of flowers for mommy and her friend. Not sure what I'm going to do with this boy when he's a teenager-- I already know I'm going to be in trouble! ;)
When we got home with all of the strawberries, I was a bit overwhelmed. The minimum to pick was 3 quarts, and since these berries aren't the size of your fist like the store bought ones tend to be, that meant that we had A LOT of strawberries. I ended up making an easy Strawberry Cream Pie (the recipe was off of Kraft.com, but I can't find the link to it anymore!) and I must say, it was pretty good! This is definitely a tradition we'll probably try to do every year... Such fun family memories!