When Five Became Six: Better than peaches?

Last year, I purchased 96lbs of peaches and spent an entire weekend canning them in various ways. I never did get my blog up about it, perhaps I will do that sometime soon. We made so much peach jam, and it was to die for! Although I think after 10.5 months of eating it, we're all a little tired of it.

Yesterday I took the kids to a strawberry u-pick, something none of us had ever done. We all started out strong, picking and having fun.

Did not take Ruth long to melt down, and Naomi kept trying to eat the berries, so it quickly became a three man operation.

At this point, Rich took the little girls to walk around. When he came back, he tried to pick some more, but it was just not happening, so he went to the car to get Ruth's car seat and see if she'd like that more than the ergo. Tobiah went with him, which made picking go a lot faster. Even after he came back, Ruth just would not have anything to do with it, so Rich again decided to go for a walk, this time taking all four of the kids while I stayed and picked as fast as I could. I came out picking probably 85% of the 15lbs or so we got, with Elli doing 10%, which I was pretty proud of, and Rich doing the last 5%. Tobiah picked about ten berries I pointed out to him. What can I say, he's three.

While I was picking alone, Rich took the kids to see some really friendly horses, and ultimately had the three older kids run laps between two porta-potties. He of course had stashed the camera in the car after the above photos were taken, so sadly, no pictures of it. I guess Tobiah ran himself so hard he almost threw up. At that point Rich decided to take the kids back to the car, and Elli can and found me. She picked a few more berries, then I sent her to the car with Ruth's car seat, which had been left in the field with me, so I wouldn't have to make three trips (two boxes of strawberries=two trips), and I picked for a few more minutes. When all was said and done, I picked strawberries for two hours, and let me say, my legs are not letting me forget that. Bending/squatting for that long took it's tole on my poor legs, and I am stiff today!

After coming home, I was exhausted and took a nap. In that time, the kids and Rich inhaled most of the box the kids had picked into (I, too, picked many of those berries, as we started with one box, but the second box was just mine, and therefor all "good" berries ;) ). When I got up, I decided I better go ahead and make a batch of jam, as I did not want all those wonderful, best-I-have-ever-tasted berries going to waste. I let Elli stay up way past her bedtime to help/watch.