Strawberry Picking

Guess what we did Sunday?  If you couldn't tell from the title or from the picture, we went strawberry picking!  For the last few years I've been dragging my family out to the field to pick fresh strawberries.  As payment for coming with me they get homemade strawberry shortcake with freshly picked berries on top.

We ended up picking three flats, would have been more but I think my husband ate a flat in the field.  I'm happy to say that for at least the third year in the row I picked the most berries.  The winner doesn't get anything except bragging rights, in our family that's pretty important.  The family likes to make all kinds of excuses (like - we ate a lot of the ones we picked) but it doesn't matter. The proof is on the scale and mine is the heaviest!

I typically quarter mine, throw some sugar on them, put them into quart bags and freeze them for future use.  The first two flats I did by myself, by the third I remembered that I had indentured servants to help me.  Of course, it's impossible for my son to assist me without wise guy comments.  He likened having to cut the strawberries to a punishment.  Some of my favorites were:

"So mom, is the water boarding station being used right now?"
"Wasn't there a spot available on the chain gang?"
My personal favorite, said to his sister after she sat next to him to start cutting "What are you in for?"

Needless to say we got them all chopped and I now have 10 quart bags in my freezer waiting for us.  I may make the family go out again on Thursday to pick another few flats, we'll see how ambitious I'm feeling!

What do you do with your fresh picked strawberries?

I've linked this up over at Courtney's "Women Living Well".  I would encourage you to head over and check out her site.  If you are visiting from there, welcome to my blog!