Strawberries Come and Strawberries Go

Well, I am back, though I can't promise it will be very predictable how often I post.  My priority is home and family, and though I could think of much to write in this space, it is not the most important thing. 

We've had much life going on, as always, and it if full of vicissitudes---that is to say, the ups and downs of working out our faith in every day life.  Always challenges.  Always joys (when we look for them, even in the trials).

We eagerly await the beginning of berry picking season every year, which always starts with strawberries.  Somehow they seem to have made their debut in stealth this year.  We did manage to get a good amount on our first picking, and I am thankful now that we chose to use that batch primarily to restock the freezer.  Because the following week we planned to go again.  And we were taking some new friends along this time (who had not had a chance to pick yet).

But then it was closed for watering day on the day we planned to go.  And the phone message had already said that the strawberry pickings were waning.  What...????  Didn't you just open last week?  Did I miss something?  (I heard rumblings later that "strawberries were two weeks early this year."  But I sure couldn't tell that by the newspaper advertisements I had been watching).  And then it rained the next day.  We were not up for traipsing through a muddy field.  It turned out they would have been closed anyway.  They probably wished they had not watered the previous day.  We planned our next outing for  Friday.  And at the last minute I decided I better call and check.  They now had to close because the fields were so muddy after two days of water.

I called around and everyone said the strawberries were at the end of their season.  So, yes, there were still some available.  Not so plentifully abundant, though.  So we chose another farm down the road, as it seemed to be "Now or Never" to get U-pick strawberries. 

Though we didn't pick near the amount we had picked the previous week, and our friends were a bit discouraged to have missed getting a good enough quantity to stock their freezer for the year, we were grateful for:

• Sharing fellowship in the sunshine of the field
• Getting to know new friends who share a like mind and heart, and who have also walked a challenging journey the past couple of years
• The donut machine, which of course begged us to buy an after-picking treat!  (I still think of Homer Price every time I see a farm stand making donuts)
• Free samples of strawberry shortcake
• Seeing a World War II P-51 Mustang fly overhead while picking (there was a local air museum/show going on of WWII planes, which we didn't get to attend, but were so glad to get to see one in action)
• Tractors in the field
• A dry field!  Even though when I called in the morning she told me it was muddy and so we all came in boots and then wished we had other shoes!
• More berries for all kinds of strawberry delights.

I did manage to make my fresh strawberry pie this year.  When I was in college, I worked at a restaurant near my hometown as a hostess.  They made delectable pies.  I was able to get the recipe for the peanut butter pie (much to Tender Warrior's delight).  And the strawberry pie I just found in a cookbook, I think, in our early married life.

So, while we finish putting away the rest of these strawberries, we will anticipate the arrival of raspberries, marionberries, and blueberries....which are just around the corner!