Summertime

So I haven't written here in quite a while . . .but that is because things have been busy here. The summer started with what may be one of my favorite things about living in Oregon - the STRAWBERRIES!!! This year we had a particularly wet, chilly spring - so the wait was long. We prayed for sunshine so those little red yummy berries would ripen, and eventually they did.

There are lots of small, farmer owned u-pick places in the area. This year the place I went to had six varieties, each one sweeter than the next. These were all destined for either my tummy or the freezer, so the morning was spent picking Raniers, Shuksans and Bentons. All delicious and so sweet. I honestly don't remember tasting sweeter strawberries before the move to the northwest.

Berry picking was always something that sounded sort of Laura Ingallls Wilder - something you might do on your way home from the one room schoolhouse. I have learned a few things that reading the "Little House" books didn't teach me. For one thing, it is best to pick in the morning, before things warm up. And you need to bring something to carry your berries home in - preferably something not too deep, because if they are in more than a layer or two they get squished, and that is a sad thing to find when you get home after scootching around in the ground picking berries all morning!

To me the summer really starts when strawberries are around - so that is how my summer started, one lovely morning out listening to the birds sing picking strawberries galore . . .and enjoying strawberry shortcake for dinner!