My favorite season is upon us... strawberry season! Not only because I'm not sure there's a more tasty treat than a freshly picked strawberry straight from the farm, but also because it seems to mark a season of warm days filled with sunshine and evenings spent outside together. I particularly love the warm evenings together - wandering around the yard watering plants, watching the girls, playing ball together, relaxing in the hammock. This time of year just lifts my spirits and I feel like you'll know exactly what I'm talking about!
There is a local farm that brings their strawberries in daily to a little red cart in town. The strawberries literally melt in your mouth and taste so sweet (and this particular farm also does not use pesticides, which is wonderful). I'm almost embarrassed to admit how many gallons we go through during strawberry season!
The hammock gets a lot of attention around here... I'm not sure how we lived without it for so long. Not only during the evenings, but it's the perfect spot during the day to stop and take a snack break when the sunshine is beating down. The huge old tree it sits under provides just the right amount of cool shade.
While there are so many delicious ways to eat strawberries, my very favorite is simply by themselves. The strawberry season seems so short, and I savor these few weeks we can eat strawberries this sweet and ripe.
Nevertheless, now that the days are so warm, the girls have been begging to make popsicles. While both girls love to help me in the kitchen, Jillian is especially enjoying learning how to make certain things. Since she is eight now and so capable, I've been making more of an effort to give her independence in the kitchen. (She's made Rosetta and I scrambled eggs almost every day this week for breakfast. ;-) )
"Is this how you do it, Sissy?"
And so, this was our treat tonight... strawberry popsicles eaten in the back yard as we enjoyed every last bit of the warm evening light. What a sweet strawberry season this is!
I am a tinge jealous...our strawberry season won't be starting till June:)
ReplyDeleteLovely pictures showing your daughters enjoying a delicious Spring time treat.
ReplyDeleteAnd Jillian cooking breakfast with fresh eggs from your chickens. Warm sunshine days in the hammock, how relaxing! Kathleen in Az
I love this time of year. And I really do enjoy your blog! Your little girls are so darling and remind me of my little blonde-haired daughter...only she is eighteen instead of eight. It's unbelievable how fast times flies, but each stage is joy!
ReplyDeleteLove your blog and your sweet depiction of simple joys. Looking at your photos of "the cozy life" always brings a smile to my face as I live in a city and someday dream of moving to a farmhouse in the country. Can you share how you make strawberry popsicles?
ReplyDeleteThank you, Dana! Sure! Remove stems from 2 cups of strawberries. Then I made 1/2 cup of "syrup" using about 1/8 cup coconut sugar and the rest water (dissolve sugar and water in saucepan over heat). Place strawberries, syrup, and the juice of 1/2 lemon into a blender and puree. Place in popsicle molds and freeze! I will warn you that these are not sweet - so feel free to add more sugar. If you'd like sweeter popsicles, I'd probably use 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup water for the syrup, but we are trying to cut back on sugar these days. ;-)
DeleteThank you so much! Made these strawberry popsicles over the weekend and they were so delicious!!!
DeleteGorgeous strawberries...love strawberry season...and love seeing photos of the girls...they are getting so big...they are so adorable...they always have been. Love seeing them grow up!!
ReplyDeleteHave a great weekend!
I couldn't agree more - strawberries are just the sweetest, best treat. Our strawberry season won't begin until the end of May and into June. We, like you, eat LOTS of them. I also flash freeze some and then store in ziploc bags for later.
ReplyDeleteAlways love visiting here. :-)
-Carol
puretsimple.blogspot.com
I so agree with you! Our strawberry season is a few weeks out - can't wait!
ReplyDeleteI'm with you, Andrea. I love strawberry season. Earlier this week we were thinking about going picking this weekend, but as it turns out, we're having a very chilly, very damp weekend (tomorrow it's supposed to rain all day!). Maybe next weekend. I don't want to miss the season. It's crucial that we pick and freeze many gallons of berries to use the rest of the year in smoothies. This past winter we ran out of both strawberries and blueberries that we had picked last year, and had to resort to buying frozen berries at the grocery. I love this time of year! Your photos are wonderful, too. They capture the magic perfectly.
ReplyDeleteClaudia