an apple (or ten) a day

we joined our good friends kim & abby and kim, ian & logan for some apple-picking fun this past weekend. cole has grown so much since our trip last year, but  he was as curious as ever. 

it wasn't looking too promising when we woke that morning - it was a downpour.  we all braved the weather, armed with muddy buddies and boots - luckily for us the rain stopped and eventually the sun even made an appearance.  the kids had fun, ran about, pet bunnies, made faces, 75 pounds of apples were picked amongst us all and hay was ridden on.  autumn festivities, hooray! let the apple eating commence!

the wheels on the bus...

be prepared to read about more berry picking craziness.  yet more!  can you believe it?  who knew so much fruit was just waiting to be picked by eager hands?

coco and i took yet another trip to krause for berries on tuesday this week.  i was exhausted after a weekend of flat-out working while jamie took cole on outings to give me the time i needed to work.  by tuesday i needed a fun go-to activity that didn't involve a lot of manhandling, planning, sweating or walking up hills.  some sweating was palatable...

we tried to pick blackberries but they're not quite ready and cole ate what i picked as fast as i could put them in the bucket.  i had hoped to get the last raspberries but it turns out the season is done.  we picked a few hard-to-find handfuls before a somewhat surly teenage farm worker told us that the raspberry fields were closed and the berries had been sprayed for the end of the season.  he literally took my basket, dumped it out and then suggested we try blueberries instead, gesturing towards a line of folks standing around with empty buckets on the dusty path.

it turns out their blueberry patch is a kilometre or so down the road and we were to be bussed over there in a school bus!  apparently taking the school bus is a tidy loophole in the safe-baby-transport plan.  go ahead, hop on!  so we did.  when cole heard we would be taking the school bus he abandoned his earlier project (wagon pulling) and ran to get in line.  we climbed aboard - hey, they have seat belts nowadays but they still have that same school bus smell and sticky vinyl seats - and jiggled down the road to the blueberries.  (note to nervous nellies: the regular bus lets babies on too and it doesn't even have lap belts...)

i'd been blueberry picking before but i forgot how easy it is!  lovely little clusters of blueberries as far as the eye could see, all covered with dusky, velvety bloom.  we had brought one 2l ice cream pail and a holey basket from daiso that was merely meant for carrying cole's stuffed bunnies.  well after not much more than 20 minutes (the time between buses) we filled both and had to find a new home for the rabbits in my purse.

cole had a blast. he ran in circles, played with his bunnies, ate and ate, made funny faces, adored the bus rides and we even heard thunder and saw a few flashes of lightning.  and we also have 7 1/2 pounds of berries to show for our (very slight) troubles.  

movin' on up the fruit chain

we've moved on to raspberries now.  we picked three 1 kg buckets on saturday and they are most delicious!  one of my favourite breakfasts is fruit, french vanilla yogurt and lots of hazlenut granola, so all through the summer my taste buds are eager for the next fruit!

i would probably have always said that strawberries were my favourite berry, but the tides have turned over the years.  i love them, but there's a lot of prep work and they don't last very long in the fridge.  realistically, whichever berry and/or tree fruit is in-season locally is probably my favourite, but raspberries and blueberries have both moved to the top of my list simply because of the ease of preparation.  no hulling!  also, no bending while picking!

cole was really helpful in ferrying a bucket between jamie and me, he did a little scavenging and he loved eating them of course.  i suppose i should not let him eat unwashed fruit, but really - i've seen the crazy stuff he's put into his mouth over the  last year or so and a few unwashed berries are not going to harm him (or me for that matter - nom nom).  we scooped up a pre-picked basket of strawberries too (because i know that once they're gone i'll mourn my lost fruit opportunities) and a tiny little basket of juicy, delicious okanagan cherries.

continued strawberry consumption

we've been to the strawberry farm twice more in the last week - hooray for vitamins!  we went on saturday with jamie, because i like to ensure that we have an equal division of labour where bending is involved (ha, not even close) and then again today with friends just for fun.

both times were a treat and thank the merciful heavens - the milkshake shack was open!  too good to resist.

i think i have enough berries for now.  in years past i'd clean probably 50 pounds of berries and freeze them, but we now use our freezer for such things as cole's particular brand of organic fishsticks, bags of edamame, bread loaf stumps, stock-up chicken breasts, multiple types of popsicles and the remains of a delightfully icy bottle of gin.  so i only have room for a few pounds, i think.  and that's all for now.  i have to continue on my mission to make jam, prepare freezer berries and figure out how to make every meal for the next few days include strawberries.  ;-)

bring your parka - it's strawberry season

on tuesday cole and i took an eagerly anticipated trip out to our favourite strawberry-picking farm.  we go there many times each summer, picking whatever is in season.  it's a bit of a drive, but their berries are fantastic and they have turned themselves into quite the a-rama kind of operation over the years.

all weekend i'd looked forward to it.  the farm opened on monday but we had plans, so tuesday loomed large - delicious berries on the horizon.  yes, i do get excited for picking fruit.  of course, on tuesday morning the sky was heavy, gloomy and overcast.  the weather report (which i don't listen or pay attention to unless i'm hoping it will secretly tell me what i'm seeing out the window isn't true) forecast a 70% chance of rain and stepping out onto our patio told me it was definitely not warm.  but, strawberries were a-calling and i do love me some fresh fruit.  i figured that if worst came to worst (had look that phrase up - it looks wrong when you analyze it) we could always just pay for pre-picked berries and at least we would have some yummy fruit to eat.

we barreled down the highway and as we got off at our exit and meandered down back roads it started to pour. buckets of very cold, very wet rain.  ah well, fine - so be it.  but of course, i figured that i couldn't let the fun of berry picking - not to mention the better value - pass me by.  by the time we had reached the farm the rain had let up to a light drizzle and we donned our hoods and brought out our wagon.

it retrospect, two things.  i would have left our wagon at home.  i knew the berry farm had wagons - why did i bring ours?  do i like washing mud off things?  and that brings me to my second point: dressing appropriately for the situation.  i had dressed cole warmly in layers and put him in rubber boots.  why did i wear a plain hoodie and flip flops?  ergh.  standing in cold mud in the rain in basically your bare feet is not fun.  

the rest of it, however, was great!  cole had a blast, the rain let up eventually, we ate a few berries and picked two big bowls full in no time at all, we caught three snails and pet the donkey, the much-loved milkshake shack was closed so we shared strawberry shortcake and brought home their homemade strawberry ice cream to make our own.  i think we'll go back in a few days - i like to pick a ton of berries so that we can freeze some (never enough - we always run out by thanksgiving) and make jam.  back to the berry farm, post haste!  next time: eighty six the wagon and bring boots!

mmm... apple-y

i've always wanted to pick apples. i love anything that smacks of fall and i have a penchant for picking fruit, a side effect (although pleasant, and no itching to speak of) of going to u-pick all sorts of things as a kid. the berry farm of my childhood was an amazing place - not just the berries, but the roaming, the shady moist areas under the windbreaks, the off-limits pond that had frogs that peed on your hands (which you only found out about when you went to the off-limits pond), the rotten strawberry fights... but i've never actually done u-pick tree fruit, a few stolen peaches aside.

armed with our too-zoomed out google map and a baby who didn't want to take a morning nap, jamie drove us way out to abbotsford to a lovely farm called the apple barn. if you just want apples, you can just pick apples, but if you want kid fun palooza and country fest ahoy, you can pay $3 and get access to a hayride, petting farm, an amazing looking bouncy thing, big slides and a zipline and all manner of delights.

we pretty much just did the apple picking and visited the petting zoo, because i like to dawdle and cole was excessively tired by the end, but it was totally a fun trip. i will ignore the fact that they were playing country music, because although i abhor country music with all the fibres available to me, it seemed relatively fitting and festive somehow. they have fresh pressed cider too, and these delicious apple cider sluhies that are really, really good.

different apples are available at different points in the season, which lasts september and october. we picked honeycrisps and they are amazing! huge, so juicy and crispy and the picking was a breeze. i think i got the "duh" look when i asked how long it would take to pick a 10 lb bag (i had a napless baby and many amusements to consider!). it would have taken about 3 minutes, but we paced ourselves and took our time.

we stuffed our bag to the point of ridiculousness and it only cost $8.00! i can't wait until fuji's are ready - early october, i hear - to go back again.

raspberry season

i love raspberries. i love the raspberry for it's practicality and simplicity - just wash it and you're done. no messy hulling, they last longer in the fridge than my other favourite, strawberries, and there's no back-breaking labour required when picking. same goes for the blueberry.

we took cole out to krause berry farm again yesterday to pick some raspberries. the season is getting on and the picking was a little thin, but i managed to fill a few small buckets while jamie and cole enjoyed the sandbox and whatnot. cole was again no stranger to berry picking - he nabbed a few low-hanging ones before we moved along to gawk at the goats (they were sleepy), pick up some veggies and of course a stop at the snack shack for strawberry shakes.

ps - homemade "huck finn" pants from heather ross' weekend sewing. can't resist making more baby pants - they're so easy.

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.

Strawberry season is here!

Cole and I took a lovely drive out to Aldergrove to Krause Brothers Farms on Friday to pick up some delicious strawberries. The fields were busy with pickers, but I wasn't up to bending over all morning in the hot sun (especially since Cole was in the Baby Bjorn!) so I bought some in their shop. This is the best berry place - but you do have to go way out to no-man's land!

Cole enjoyed his ride in the car (well, he likes to sleep!) and was so patient in the long line to get berries. It was super busy since the chillens had just gotten out of school. He really enjoyed his visit with Grandma & Grandpa & Auntie Jas. He just loves to laugh!

Yesterday we put all those berries to good use. Ate lots (and continue to), froze a few and made a batch of strawberry jam and a crisp.


The jam is the Certo lower sugar variety, and for some reason it hasn't set as firmly as I'd like... This happened last time I made the low-sugar type of strawberry, but the regular always turns out fine... Lesson learned - more sugar is better! ;-) Even if it doesn't firm up any more, it will still be great as we use it, in plain yogurt. Or maybe on some ice cream?

The rhubarb crisp turned out perfectly - so good! I'm glad - I just found the super-easy recipe online.