West Coast Webbers: More Strawberries!

God, I love Oregon. A couple of days ago we heard on Facebook about a farm with *extremely* low prices on strawberries...we're talking 25 to 50 cents a pound! Well, we made it over there today not really sure what to expect. Something must be wrong to be selling this cheap, right? Well, we had a great conversation with the woman at the farm when we pulled up. Turns out they weren't able to hire enough laborers this year to pick all four strawberry fields. They managed to get three done, but the fourth was simply going to rot unless someone got in there and enjoyed. The farm had decided to convert the fourth field to corn, so as far as they were concerned, the field was already waste. Except! Except for the over-abundance of tiny sweet ripe strawberries. She told us that they were so close to converting the field that anything we picked was completely free, and please tell all our friends! After noticing the rambunctious kids in the car just waiting to hear where the field was, she followed this up with a direct instruction: "Have the kids go wild! Let 'em stomp on the plants. Tell 'em to rip 'em up! Hit 'em with a stick. Throw the strawberries. Just have fun!"

We followed her instruction To The Letter. Caiden and Jack were SO overjoyed! They weren't really sure we meant it at first, but after a few tentative stomps with ample checking in to make *sure* we weren't going to reprimand them, they went wild! Stomping through the fields, swinging sticks, throwing strawberries, they were just having the time of their lives. Rebecca took the instructions a little differently...."So, you mean, we don't HAVE to put any in the bucket?" "Yes, Rebecca. Do what you want with them." She plopped herself down in the middle of a row and proceeded to eat every last strawberry she could lay her hands on. She came out of that field absolutely dripping rivers of strawberry juice and happy to her very-most inside.

We've already made strawberry ice cream and strawberries in sauce, as well as eating at least two bowls each. And we're going back today!

I was too busy picking to get many photos, but here are a few.