After what will next month be 17 years in Finland, I finally lost my virginity - I went strawberry picking. The weirdest thing was that my wife who's age will remain undisclosed, lost her strawberry picking virginity too - and she has lived here her whole life.
The farm we went to is about a 30 minute drive away and the fields are on a slope that overlooks a beautiful view of the lake, with small, forested islands doting the surface. You would think I got a decent picture of the scenery - but there was serious strawberrying to do.
This is now "late in the season" this year and because of the heavy rains recently, there was a lot of strawberries rotting away. Being our first time, I was expecting it to be more painful as the guy said that we would have to have the "right mindset" to collect - in other words, stare at the ceiling and think of mother England.
We were taken to the fields by a tractor pulling a wagon and then a guide gave us our "track" to stick to for our harvest, which we veered from heavily as we ran out of decent berries. But, there were still plenty around and they are bloody delicious. I don't know if it is the type of berry or the long Finnish summers, but the strawberries here are delicious, but ugly.
No one wants a post full of ugly strawberries, so I am mindful of other's feelings and only added pictures of prettier strawberries.
A rare action shot of me.
One of the many of my wife.
We picked for about an hour and a half and ended up getting about 5.5 kilos (12lb) of berries and while it wasn't hard, I felt that we did have to search a bit more than we should have. But hey, what a stupid feeling that is, as this was my first time strawberry picking and I have no point of reference.
We didn't have too long at the farm as we had to get Smallsteps from daycare. Next year, we will take her along, but I don't think she would have been too keen today - although she loves picking blueberries and the grandparent's cottage. She really enjoyed eating some of them for a snack though and while currently still on the "iffy food" list, I am hoping that finally it can be brought off and we can give her a bit more.
Once home, it was time to prepare them for freezing. Taking the little green hat off and sticking them in a plastic box with a bit of sugar on top. We ended up boxing about 12 liters of berries and they are now in the chest freezer, so we can enjoy "fresh" berries in the winter. It is sitting next to a mountain of chopped rhubarb and juice.
My wife has the blood of hundreds of strawberries on her hands - and smiles about it. She mush have eaten a litre of them straight from the bushes as she was picking.
This was the last day of my wife's holidays this year and I think it was a nice way to close out the week. Tomorrow, we are planning to head to a farm where there are a few animals to see and some things for Smallsteps to do, as the weather is going to be good, but will degrade early next week.
It is nice to do these little day trips to places that aren't anything special, but kind of old-timey wholesome. We are not a very "digital family" and other than my writing and my wife surfing social medias, don't spend that much time in front of screens consuming - and extremely rarely as a family. We tried to watch something with my daughter a couple weeks ago, but it mostly just bores her, unless there is the opportunity for her to sing and dance - and she doesn't need a prompt to do that.
Have a great weekend!
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
