Strawberry Picking

I have a thousand childhood memories that I want to recreate with my two boys, one such memory is strawberry picking. I have very vivid memories of sneaking as many strawberries into my mouth as were placed in the basket and I wanted the boys to experience the same.

Coming back to the UK for a month to escape the Dubai heat we have arrived during an unusual heat wave, so far we have enjoyed nothing but sunny days and so one such sunny day we got in the car and headed to Scaddows Farm close to my mums house to indulge in some strawberry picking.

Arriving at the farm, brilliant blue sky above us, I loaded Baby Boy into the Ergo – which he is now big enough for – and had the task of waking the toddler up who had closed his eyes 5 minutes before we got there. Pulling him gently from slumber was a bit of a gamble, toddlers know their minds and if mine doesn’t want to be awake you know about it. Luckily for me he was so excited at the prospect of strawberries he forgot that he wanted to be asleep.

Collecting our basket and entrusting it to the Toddler off we set. I was worried originally that this could be an epic failure of a day out with only green strawberries being picked or major tantrums happening. Thankfully neither happened.

As we recounted our strawberry picking day to Daddy back in Dubai over Skype later the toddler was sure to mention that we only pick “Red and Juicy” strawberries. And big ones.

He was so excited to pick the strawberries from their natural environment and pull the stalks off. Each strawberry was studied intently the way only a toddler can. And then he realised that these in fact WERE strawberries. You know. His favourite ever food (of the moment).

And strawberry picking became strawberry eating….

With half eaten strawberries working there way into our punnet.

We stayed strawberry picking for a good 30-40 minutes, the excitement of finding a plump red strawberry never waning for the toddler. The bright sunshine shining down from a brilliant blue sky. Little toddler sayings and strawberry juice smeared across his face. A perfect morning out followed by a trip to the farm shop for sausage butties and carrot cake.

You want strawberry?

Leaving with a glut of strawberries to make some lovely strawberry recipes with – first up will have to be Eton Mess – I’d love to hear any suggestions anyone has.