A Berry Good Day

Yum - strawberries!

Today Ian got his first taste of pick your own strawberries. I think he's a fan. I told the kids last night that as soon as everyone got up, we'd get dressed to go pick berries. We wouldn't have breakfast because we could eat berries in the field. They were pretty excited. Ian woke up first this morning a little before 6am, Cami was up a little while later. Ben was the last up a little after 7am. Shortly thereafter we were in the van and on our way to Berry Hill Farm on Old Sauk Road outside of Middleton.


We chose Berry Hill because it was the only one in the area that seemed to be open this weekend. Our normal stop, Carandale, is closed for ripening this weekend. Berry Hill is a smaller farm and only about 10 people were picking when we arrived. The kids were excited to get started. Ben and Cami were mildly helpful and Ian just started eating berries - which was perfect. (You can see Ian's handiwork in the picture above. I didn't have a camera in the patch, but I took this when we got home - notice the red on the shirt!) I was concerned he'd run all over the rows and get too busy to handle and we'd be leaving with a quart of berries.


We were doing fine until Cami annouced she had to go to the bathroom -- No. 2 at that. So we inquired about a bathroom and the attendant said he didn't know if one was available, but gestured toward the trees. I hope we didn't do any permanent damage to the trees.

After our bathroom break, we went back to our row and picked a little more. Cami was pretty much done, but Ben was still into it and Ian kept shoving berries into his little mouth. We ended up with a little over 8 lbs or 2/3 of a flat. I was satisfied considering I had three helpers with short attention spans.


All the picking wore out Ian and he was asleep shortly after we left the farm. On the way home, we stopped at the Farmer's Market on the square on the way home, got some snap peas and cheese curds, and went to the observation deck in the Capitol.


Cami passed out on the way home from the Farmer's Market. When we got home, Ben helped me make pancakes and that was our lunch - pancakes with berries. Later on we made a pie. The kids are excited to eat it tomorrow -- maybe even for breakfast. I just had a slice and it was delicious - a perfect end to a berry good day.