Strawberry poppin' daddy
After what will next month be 17 years in Finland, I finally lost my virginity - I went strawberry picking. The weirdest thing was that my wife who's age will remain undisclosed, lost her strawberry picking virginity too - and she has lived here her whole life.
The farm we went to is about a 30 minute drive away and the fields are on a slope that overlooks a beautiful view of the lake, with small, forested islands doting the surface. You would think I got a decent picture of the scenery - but there was serious strawberrying to do.
This is now "late in the season" this year and because of the heavy rains recently, there was a lot of strawberries rotting away. Being our first time, I was expecting it to be more painful as the guy said that we would have to have the "right mindset" to collect - in other words, stare at the ceiling and think of mother England.
We were taken to the fields by a tractor pulling a wagon and then a guide gave us our "track" to stick to for our harvest, which we veered from heavily as we ran out of decent berries. But, there were still plenty around and they are bloody delicious. I don't know if it is the type of berry or the long Finnish summers, but the strawberries here are delicious, but ugly.
No one wants a post full of ugly strawberries, so I am mindful of other's feelings and only added pictures of prettier strawberries.
A rare action shot of me.
One of the many of my wife.
We picked for about an hour and a half and ended up getting about 5.5 kilos (12lb) of berries and while it wasn't hard, I felt that we did have to search a bit more than we should have. But hey, what a stupid feeling that is, as this was my first time strawberry picking and I have no point of reference.
We didn't have too long at the farm as we had to get Smallsteps from daycare. Next year, we will take her along, but I don't think she would have been too keen today - although she loves picking blueberries and the grandparent's cottage. She really enjoyed eating some of them for a snack though and while currently still on the "iffy food" list, I am hoping that finally it can be brought off and we can give her a bit more.
Once home, it was time to prepare them for freezing. Taking the little green hat off and sticking them in a plastic box with a bit of sugar on top. We ended up boxing about 12 liters of berries and they are now in the chest freezer, so we can enjoy "fresh" berries in the winter. It is sitting next to a mountain of chopped rhubarb and juice.
My wife has the blood of hundreds of strawberries on her hands - and smiles about it. She mush have eaten a litre of them straight from the bushes as she was picking.
This was the last day of my wife's holidays this year and I think it was a nice way to close out the week. Tomorrow, we are planning to head to a farm where there are a few animals to see and some things for Smallsteps to do, as the weather is going to be good, but will degrade early next week.
It is nice to do these little day trips to places that aren't anything special, but kind of old-timey wholesome. We are not a very "digital family" and other than my writing and my wife surfing social medias, don't spend that much time in front of screens consuming - and extremely rarely as a family. We tried to watch something with my daughter a couple weeks ago, but it mostly just bores her, unless there is the opportunity for her to sing and dance - and she doesn't need a prompt to do that.
Have a great weekend!
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
I've never gone fruit picking at all. In my house in CA I had strawberries and other fruits growing. Anything I didn't grow I just bought. Sounds like a fun family outing though. Something to do, and you didn't have to be living there already to plant your own in advance.
Why put the sugar on top? Is that necessary to prevent freezer burn or something like that?
We have great strawberries in our yard that we planted -the pheasants are loving them... We have managed to get a couple to taste :)
I would like to tell you why - but I have no idea, it is just what they do. My wife saying something about that they can go a bit bitter once frozen... but I didn't really listen past that ;D
LOL!
What in the blazes?! There is a photo of you! The man in the flesh, popping his cherry!! Or should that be 'berry...!
I am going strawberry picking next week. Fun times to be had :OD
First time confessions
Have fun next week :)
What a nice red color they have!
I love mixing them with banana, yogurt, milk and sugar to make a fresh shake.
The colour in them is great and smoothies are definitely on the cards for these in the winter :)
I worked for one summer picking strawberries, I think it was my first job. I have no fond memories of it, I’ll gladly let the south-east Asian people do it and I’ll pay a good price for the freshly picked berries. I’m glad you had an alright time doing it though, strawberries are so good to have in the freezer for winter.
I think corona has meant there are no pickers this year. Perhaps you can return to your roots and demand a better salary :)
@Apsu hates frozen berries. Hates them.
Here in Päijänne Tavastia, there was recently a cluster of Covid-19 cases among the pickers. They were from the Ukraine.
I still think that this corona isn't much of an issue - next one might be worse - but we have already cried wolf.
It's too early to say what kind of an issue it will be globally. Too little is known about the virus and the disease itself.
There are now a million confirmed cases in India.
This is what the graph showing the total number of cases for India looks like.
The same for the USA
A lot depends on how many cases are asymptomatic or have only mild symptoms and are thus never diagnosed. That is simply unknown. If the proportion of those is large, then the virus will be hard to stop but there will be much less need to do so. If the proportion is small, those who are opposed to any social distancing measures and enhanced hygiene will cause major harm because with some discipline the virus could be stopped and it would not cause a lot of deaths and health problems that may last much longer than a few weeks in some cases.
One of the weird things I do not understand is that people freeze their strawberries.
You can buy frozen strawberries any day. Any goddamn day. But then you have the short period of time when you can get fresh strawberries AND YOU FREEZE THEM.
We eat them all fresh. Our family has eaten approximately 20 kilos of Strawberries so far. Tomorrow, I'll go buy some more.
We have eaten a lot fresh too and prefer them fresh by far. But there is also something nice about eating what you picked yourself.
20kg is a lot...
I had promised my wife that I won't buy a big 5 kg box today. However they looked so good, so now we have another 5 kg of strawberries.
Finns usually eat so much ham every Christmas that they don't want to eat any ham for the next 11½ months, I'm planning to do the same with strawberries.
(and you're 100% right, even frozen strawberries taste better when you've picked and frozen them by yourself)
!ENGAGE 15
ENGAGEtokens.I never go strawberry picking I mean it lol still virgin in both cases
Lol - perhaps you should get out and mingle ;D
Oh, my... So many strawberries (I just love them)!
Strawberries are brilliant fresh :)
Been there and done that about 20 years ago if not longer. Surely you saved some for your famous Pavlova you make. I never picked that many as it was used to get the kids out the house for something different. We had a farm nearby so Strawberries was just one of the many things we used to pick. Smallsteps should enjoy it next season and hopefully is one of the foods she can have.
I will have to buy more for a pavlova, as they are best fresh and I didn't have a reason to make one yesterday evening. Perhaps tomorrow night :)
It is good to get out in the sun for a bit however.
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I picked strawberries a few years ago. We pick them in greenhouses in February. Personally I prefer to pay the 3d workers to do the picking for me while I sit on the patio drinking daiquiris and eating pie.
lol. I wouldn't want to do it as a job, but for a couple hours a year, not too bad.
For 5.5Kg (~12L) it cost us 27€ - buying it from a stall would be about 5-7€ a litre, depending on time and season.
A lot of the places here are more expensive than in the shop which is odd. However, I did blueberry picking in Canada last year and that was much, much cheaper.
It is much cheaper here too - because they grow wild just about everywhere. :D
Some great photos here and love your Colgate smile lol.
It's so great to go out exploring and doing things by yourselves as a family.
Especially when it's a first time and the discoveries are lasting memories.
I think smallsteps would have loved it, but you would have had a pink, or red little daughter afterwards hahaha.
Only from the distance ;D
Yeah, we slather her with sunscreen as she is not quite my colour :D However, she tans very fast.
Hahaha, no, I meant that she will be pink, or red from all of the cherries that she picks. I saw the red on your wife's hands.
Only the presentation people give a rip about the relative beauty of their strawberries. The rest of us just want more.
My question would be way more about your feelings. Are you ok with losing your virginity in such a calculated manner? Do you feel liberated or were you let down by the experience? Such a delicate matter...
You two look very cute. You have a wonderful family!
I've never had a strawberry in my life. I've had maybe 5 different types of food unless you count water, then only 4. Leaves, fish, bone marrow, flour.... those things look great though!