Serious question…have you ever bought the sweetest strawberries you have ever tasted from the grocery store? Be honest. Yeah, I didn’t think so.
I am so tired of buying the pints of strawberries to only have three or four taste sweet. They are picked too early, then shipped to stores to ripen. A few are sweet, others are tart and the rest are not edible. Am I right?
On a whim, I decided to google farmers markets to see if I could somehow find some fresh grown berries despite the Covid-19 stay at home orders. Instead, I found of list of farms in Alabama where you can pick your own fruits and vegetables. Here’s the link from the Farmers Market Authority under the U-Pick Operators heading. www.fma.alabama.gov. There’s probably several in your state too.
Then I came across a farm in north Alabama, in Hazel Green, to be specific, where you can pick your own, Brown Farms Strawberries.
Let’s do this! So I told my husband let’s go on a little road trip…. “Let me take you down cause we’re going to strawberry fields.” Okay, I diverged. We were off with our fur baby Miss Scarlet in tow. We hopped in the car one Saturday morning in May during the peak of the stay-at-home-order.
We decided to make the road trip to Brown Farm and were we surprised by the acres of strawberries. No social distancing problems here as the fields are large.
They provide a white gallon bucket and you can pick ‘til your hearts content for $14 or you can pay $16 and get a buck already picked. You can just drive thru the barn, pay and go, or peruse the fields. I decided to try picking my own. The fields were huge so social distancing was not a problem. Before I knew it, I had a gallon of deep red berries. My husband had to stay with Miss Scarlet in the covered picnic table area since they do not allow dogs in the fields.
Ready to Pick Bucket of Fresh Berries
I couldn’t decide where to start, there were so many rows of plump berries. I was in the field for about 30 minutes before filling my bucket. I had picked one gallon and my bucket was running over with red, sweet and juicy strawberries. And I had a gallon of them.
Scarlet was sitting at a table when I returned from the fields. I sat my bucket of strawberry bliss on the table while Scarlet stared and sniffed at the bucket of berries… patiently waiting for me to clean one off and give it to her. I gave in and gave her a small token of my labors. She ate it slowly as if savoring the sweet taste. She wanted more so I gave her another before we left. Scarlet gives the strawberries two paws-up. Her other favorite fruit is seedless watermelon, but that’s another post.
I shared with family, ate some, froze some, and made strawberry cobbler with the rest.
Now, I plan to pick fresh strawberries every year because there is nothing like them and grocery store berries just can’t compare. There is no better strawberry than one picked straight from the farm to your belly.
Go ahead, Google “pick your own strawberries farm.” And if you find one near you or even far from where you live, it’s worth the trip. Yummy!
Everyday Edith 