strawberries

Beware: this is mostly just a post of a bunch of cute little boys romping through strawberry fields and stuffing their faces with plump juicy berries. I say just as if it's a common, every day occurrence and not the most wonderful that has happened to Finn all week.

Strawberry picking has got to be the pinacle of late spring childhood memories. The sun is not bearing too hot overhead yet and the berries are just begging to be tasted. Who needs to fill a bucket when you can just fill your tummy on the spot?!

We met my friend, Melissa, and her two little boys, at a local berry farm where we had the run of the fields yesterday morning. Her boys were clearly strawberry picking pros, having already picked once this season.

Look at that sweet juice dripping down John Harper's hands! Irresistible!

Finn and Grady did a little bit of picking, although most of the berries in Finn's buckets were a tad on the smashed and juicy side.

But the majority of their time was spent scouting for the ripest berries to pick then eat before the berry made it's way into the bucket.

Have you ever seen such sweet strawberry-pickers under the beautiful May sky?

When the picking was finished (for today anyway!), we picnicked in the shade of the barn.

And watched the boys romp the nearby field discovering treasures of dried corn cobs, rocks and wildflowers.

Back at home, the serious strawberry business began: making strawberry-lemon sorbet

Strawberry-Lemon Sorbet

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

2 cups mashed strawberries

1/2-2/3 cup fresh lemon juice

Place sugar and water on stove over medium heat until a simple syrup is formed. Cool completely. Place simple syrup, mashed strawberries and lemon juice in ice cream freezer and mix according to freezer directions.

And there was even a bit of time in the evening for making strawberry jam.