I love strawberries! I love eating them but I also enjoy baking with them. Our favorite right now are strawberry scones. So when the strawberry season comes along, I get excited. Buttttttt lets be honest- before kids, I'd go pick them.... from the grocery store. Ok ok maybe I'd grab some at the farmer's market but it was much easier to grab them whenever I needed them, and it was quick. Now that I have Sophia, I like making it an event. Last year we went to Mill Farm here in Williamsburg.
She was old enough to walk so I dressed her up in a cute little strawberry dress and we took my in-laws along for the morning. It was so adorable to see her pick them - even though she didn't understand which were ripe, and which were gross and half eaten by bugs. So needless to say she had to be closely monitored. As we left with two huge containers of strawberries (who really needs THAT many?!) and a little babe covered head to toe with strawberry juice, I knew it would have to be a yearly tradition.
This year when Miguel asked what I wanted for Mother's Day, I quickly said, I wanted him to take us strawberry picking. It would figure that the two local places would have been "picked through" and day prior so they were closed on Mother's Day. I found one out in Suffolk- Lilly Farms (They also have a stand in Chesapeake) that was opened and ready for us! When he agreed, I mentioned that since we were going out that way, we ought to stop by our old favorite doughnut shop- O Doodle Doos! (if you haven't tried them- you haven't lived).
The morning was an absolute blast! Sophia had a ball playing in the play area out back of the doughnut shop while we stuffed our faces. Once we got to the berry farm, she was determined to fill up her basket. After a few lessons on which were good berries and which we needed to leave for later, she went right to work. She would find a good one- take a bite (just to make sure it was good) and then drop it in her basket- ha ha ha. We paid for a basket that had at least 10 half eaten strawberries in it, but it was SO WORTH IT!
We ended the day trip with a ride on the Jamestown ferry to get back home.
It was a relaxed and low-key Mother's Day and it was exactly what I had hoped for.
