Strawberie patch

Oh remember, remember... those hot days as a child going to pick wild strawberries with my mom in the forest. Well, it is so much more convenient at Butlers's Orchard in Germantown. We drove up to a field, got our containers then a farmer boy showed us to our picking raw... of nice sweet berries.

First Sonia looked a bit puzzled... which strawberries to pick? How do you know mom which are good?So she looked at them, tasted them, looked at worms that enjoyed some of them. Then I pointed out Jeremy who was really good at picking strawberries. With all honesty I am a bit proud of my own berry picking talents and would much rather bolster about my own talents to her. It was not so easy to recognize Jeremy's natural berry picking greatness ;-) Perhaps I was slowed down a bit with a baby and a busy toddler who kept asking if this berry was the right one to pick. But at the time I truly admired Jeremy's speed, quality and determination. So Sonia went to papa to question every strawberry and I took some pictures. Feo sat next to the patch fending for himself. Did I get looks from every grandma within earshot when he stuffed his mouth silly with a nice mixture of straw-dirt-mushed berries that he just proudly picked on his own? Yep. Did I respond with lame "he is a second child so he gets to do a lot more ;-)" when cornered with looks and words? Yep. Did I feel proud he could pick strawberries at seven months just like any of us? Yes.I did get every stain of his, mine and Jeremy's outfits when we got home. Sonia was super careful and remained clean.

At the end we had lots and lots of strawberries. "Who picked this one?" would ask Sonia when we were gobbling them up at home. Every one of these strawberries was unique to her. I couldn't tell exactly but I knew they all were picked with love that morning ;-)