Pickin'

No, not this kind...

This kind!

Last week my grandmother and I took the kids strawberry pickin'! Plant City is known as the winter strawberry capitol of the world. Now, California does have some fabulous berries (especially if you have the chance to live near Watsonville and catch them at their absolute peak) but my childhood memories are of Plant City strawberries.

I wasn't interested in picking a trunk full like we did as kids but just letting the boys enjoy the experience. Luckily, I hadn't planned on much because the berries were not ready! The freezes from earlier in the year made for an odd season and, even though it was early April (a full month after the usual peak season), there was hardly a berry to be picked!

Turner was so excited and did a great job picking his berries. I explained that we were looking for nice red strawberries and to try to leave any that weren't red for someone else to pick later in the week. He did a wonderful job and really enjoyed "hunting." Every few feet he'd shout "I found one! Is it red enough? Can I eat it?"

He took the whole "you may pick a berry for the basket and then pick one to eat" thing to an extremely hilarious level! He literally picked a berry, took a tiny bite, and then put it in his carton. It was the most adorable thing.

Eli had a great time, too! I tried to tell him about picking only the red strawberries but he's too little to understand. He did a great job picking, at any rate! A few times he tried to climb over the rows but I told him it hurt the strawberries so he went back to his business.

You can see the dent in the basket under his thumb; he refused to let me hold it.

This was our last spring in Florida for a while so I thought we'd at least get out to Plant City for a visit. I was bummed there wasn't better picking, but I guess you can't control the weather.

You can see the little green guy in the background. Usually, everything is nice, bright, red!

To make up for the lack of strawberries, we stopped by Parksdale Farms Produce -Home of the Jumbo Strawberry Shortcake!

Even the National Enquirer knows about Parksdale!

Of course, Brusier demolished almost everything!

My Strawberry Kings!