Berry, berry good!

With our CSA (half) share, we also get 5 pounds of u-pick strawberries and today was the day we went to pick them. The weather cooperated gloriously! We all wore long pants and sleeves to try and avoid the swarms of mosquitoes that have been around lately, figuring that it was better to swelter than to be eaten alive. Fortunately, it was around 65°F and overcast while we were picking, so long pants and sleeves actually felt kind of good!

Bug and Bean were marginal help. They collected our quart baskets and dumped them in the flat for us and Bean (much to the amusements of pickers in neighboring rows) provided commentary. Beeb's primary job was trying to mooch strawberries. We tried to keep him back for the most part as we hadn't thought to bring his fruit sock and didn't want him choking. Also, he would put them in his mouth to taste and then smoosh them with his thumb. As helpful as that was, I wasn't sure we needed five pounds of mush.

Since I started in on freezer jam when we got home, it probably wouldn't have really made much difference. I made a total of three batches: two of regular strawberry and one strawberry-blueberry, using a total of 5.5 cups of mushed strawberries and one cup of chopped up blueberries. Now I just wish we had a bigger freezer!

And since I hadn't cored enough strawberries already, we had strawberry shortcake for dessert. Yummy! Since I can't share my shortcake with you, I will instead leave you with a cheezbaby: