Picking Strawberries

This was not the year for strawberries. Last week Maddie, Abby and I headed out to Adel to Berry Fresh Farms to pick fresh strawberries. We had fun and the girls got to eat lots of fresh strawberries while we were out there. I bought about 9 pounds of fruit. My goal was to make fresh strawberry pie and freeze some for pies later.

We picked on Wednesday and by the weekend most of the strawberries were starting to go bad...growing mold or getting squishy. I think it was just a bad year for strawberries unfortunately. Too much rain!!!! I was able to make some fresh syrup to pour over lemon cake and Irish stout chocolate cupcakes for father's day. And I froze some too but I don't think the berries will be the quality I need for pies.

Berry Fresh Farms was amazing and I would highly recommend them. The ladies that helped us were super nice and helpful. Their Web site is http://www.berryfreshfarms.com/. They also have raspberries, which will be ready sometime in July. I am hoping we can make a trip back to pick some fresh raspberries. (and I hope the rain doesn't hinder this fruit crop this year!)