strawberry pickin'

we went strawberry picking, cole and i, yesterday. we do love us some fruit around here and there's really nothing like a fresh local strawberry. i hadn't any expectation of trying to pick - we were just going out to buy them but we brought a little bucket just in case.

our favourite place is kraus brothers way out on 248th street past langley. i always get lost when i try to get there by myself, if i come from the highway as we did rather than from my in-laws place in langley... we ended up at the nexus of the universe - 56th ave. and 56th ave. how does one street cross itself?

we've been going to krause for fruit since i first moved here and it's come a long way in the last nine years or so. it used to be more of a farm stand but they started making improvements and it's quite the operation now. it has a little snack place, a good selection of produce & jams, wagons, a tiny petting farm, horses and a donkey to boot. very fun indeed. i love the new set-up, and it certainly makes it more fun for the kids but i do detest the mega long line. i suggest going on a weekday. u-pick raspberries start tuesday, fyi.

cole loved it! we got a wagon and wandered out to the field just to see. we went into a lane and found a couple berries - cole spotted one first and proceeded to eat it straight away, stem and all. we picked a few more - the crop is mostly done and the picking was hard - and cole promptly ate them out of the bucket faster than i could add more! we only managed to pick (and eat) a handful before we gave up and went to buy some, but it was great fun. and he didn't run off, which is what i had expected would happen! he was content to sit and eat and play with rocks and eat and eat some more. we moved along once he started trying to eat rotten ones when the good berries ran out.

we ventured into pet the animals before getting our fruit. he was so curious about the animals but a little timid too... i loved the way his face lit up when an adorable baby goat licked his hand, kind of like "oh my god, he's licking my hand, check it out do you see this?!?!". he seemed fascinated by the big goat making his "maa maa" sound - much better than the one we do reading animal sounds. ;-) no good photos of the inside parts - i was too busy making sure he didn't pull the rabbit ears (again) or get cornered by the pregnant goat.

the lengthy line-up for getting our milkshake was nearly more than i could do - it was late by then and cole was tired and thrashy, but all was well again once he had that sweet, sweet strawberry shake in his little ice-cream loving hands.