A New Way to Pick Berries and some Patriotic Strawberries

We always look forward to seeing Bob from UTM come by many times during the season.  He brings his dogs, and....his boat???  Last year, it was truly apropos when he showed up with his boat - 2011 was the year of the floods - rain, rain, and more rain.  Naturally, I took a picture of him with his berries in his boat - and then I lost it.  But, thank goodness, he showed up with his boat again this year!  Glad he didn't bring the floods with him this year :)

Bob, his boat, and berries

File this beautiful strawberry recipe for use on the Fourth of July - they're sure to be a hit!

Red, White and Blue Chocolate Dipped Strawberries 

1 pint fresh strawberries (approx 12 oz)
4-oz white chocolate
Blue sanding sugar or sprinkles

Line a baking sheet or cutting board with wax paper or parchment paper. Chop up the chocolate roughly with a knife if it is in block form. In a medium-sized, microwave safe bowl, melt the chocolate in the microwave. Heat it in 45 or 60-second intervals, stirring between each time to ensure that the chocolate is melting evenly and not burning. Meanwhile, place blue sanding sugar into a small bowl and set it aside. When chocolate is smooth, dip the berries 3/4 of the way into the chocolate, dip the tips into the blue sprinkles, and place on wax paper. Berries can set at room temperature if you live somewhere cool, otherwise refrigerate them until ready to serve to allow the chocolate to set up.

Here's Hope! (but no change) AND something special for Moms

Nope, this is NOT a political blog (except for the title)!  We just thought this was a very pretty picture of Hope - who picks BEAUTIFUL strawberries - and her buckets.   Lovely symmetry, isn't it? 

There's Hope at the end of her row  - she picked a zillion more berries than I ever could :)

Wouldn't these be wonderfully yummy for Mother's Day?  You can check out her blog for more pictures.  Just cut off the top and hollow out the strawberry a tiny bit. 

 

Chocolate Cream Filling (from Taste of Home)

• 1-1/2 ounces semisweet chocolate, grated, divided
• 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup whipped topping

Directions

• Set aside 2 tablespoons chocolate. In a microwave, melt remaining chocolate; stir until smooth. Cool to room temperature.
• In a small bowl, beat cream cheese and vanilla until smooth. Beat in melted chocolate. Fold in whipped topping and 1 tablespoon reserved chocolate. Cut a small hole in the corner of pastry or plastic bag; insert #21 star pastry tip. Fill the bag with cream cheese mixture.
•  Pipe cream cheese mixture into strawberries. (Star #21 tip makes them really pretty)

This recipe will make over 3 dozen strawberries.

Top with whipped cream.   You can slice off a bit of the tip so they will stand upright on a fancy plate.   Enjoy them for me (still trying to get to my next 10% weight loss)!

Hot time in the summertime?

Last week we were freezing, this week we'll be boiling!  The berries do NOT like extreme heat.  Jeff is trying to keep them cool by underground irrigation early every morning.  That's about all we can do to keep them happy and producing.  The other alternative is overhead sprinklers - but I don't think our visitors would be too happy picking strawberries AND getting a shower at the same time!


We've had a lot of fun recently with many families visiting the farm and Murray State International students came for our one and only field trip of the year.  Here are some great pictures they sent us!


Oh, did you notice I added a bunch of my favorite summer songs to the top of my playlist?

The group in front of our new sign

Now he's a seasoned tractor driver!  He took the students on a hay ride.

This is one of the sweetest pictures I've seen!

A happy strawberry family :)

A bit of English strawberry history and The Berry Farm

Our new sign

I love Great Britain!  I wish I'd known I would be the wife of a strawberry grower when I was traveling throughout that beautiful land.  I'd certainly have visited "The Strawberry Line".  What does this have to do with our farm?   

We are amazed and blessed that so many of you want Jeff's strawberries.  But, since we are a rather small farm, we are introducing our own "Strawberry Line". 

Please call (270.468.0110), text, email (jvtaylor@hughes.net), or message me on Facebook with your order amount and phone number.  We will call the next person on the list as the berries come out of the field to see if they want them.  We hope you will understand - this seemed the only fair way to try to get strawberries to the most people fairly.  

Jeff suggested growing more acres of strawberries.  I suggested he get another wife!  He thought one was more than enough!

We do love everyone we meet at the farm.  You all have such interesting, fun, amazing lives and we thank you for sharing them with us :)

The West Country is amazing for walks and there are few better than this one.  The Strawberry Line was an affectionate name given to the railway track that ran between Yatton, Cheddar, Wells and Shepton Mallet, and on to Cranmore and beyond to Witham.

Part of the Great Western Railway, the Strawberry Line was completed in 1869. It became an important line for passengers and freight carrying dairy produce, stone, and of course, the famous Cheddar strawberries from which it takes its name. Victorian railway engineers completed a section of track which connected the Cheddar Valley settlements to Bristol. This brought huge benefits to the local economy opening up lucrative London markets to locally grown produce.

Renown for their quality strawberries grown on the southern slopes of the Mendip Hills, an army of strawberry growers and pickers fed the tables of the capital with this wonderful early season fruit for nearly a century. The Cheddar Valley Railway Line line soon became known affectionately as “The Strawberrry Line” but finally closed in 1965.

The route from Yatton to Cheddar is about 10 miles long and surrounded by amazing countryside.  This is well worth the trip and with strawberry picking time coming up there is no better time to do it!!!!

Alliterations and adventures

I go to a wonderful exercise class at Fulton United Methodist Church called "Wealthy Walking".  These wonderful ladies must be part of the newly formed group here at The Berry Farm called "Happy Helpers"!  Joan Homra and Nancy Nix arrived just in time to help unload our shipment of 10,000 strawberry containers :)  A warning to future visitors:  time your visit carefully, or you may end up like the "Happy Helpers"!

We've had many wonderful families come to the farm.  These are just 3 of them.  Aren't they adorable?

Peek-a-boo!

Buckets of berries

: )

Family fun

Look at the fish food caught in mid-air!

Isn't this the sweetest?

Yummy!

It's raining, it's pouring

The Berry Farm is open today! We won't be doing deliveries, but we are open for u-pick. Bring your galoshes :) The berries are firm (not waterlogged!). The fields are loaded - it will be easy, fast picking. We are working to get the water out of the ends of the walking rows - other than that, just muddy.

A few years ago, I went to a strawberry farm in Murray and just went barefoot to pick. The owner just hosed my feet off when I finished. I pretty much had the field to myself to pick, be out in nature, and just refresh myself. It was wonderful! So, come and we'll hose off your muddy feet :)

Berries need a day of rest, too!

Just like the Sabbath is a day of rest for us from our labors, so it is with our strawberry fields.  They need to soak up the sun, water, and nutrients on Sunday - sort of like how we get our spiritual batteries recharged at church.  Then we're all ready to start a new week.  


We were so busy today!  It was fun to see many families come to the farm.  Some were first-timers, some seasoned pros (and oh, how those kiddos have grown in a year!).  Here's a cute picture and a sweet comment from Madi's mom.

Madison and I had a wonderful time picking strawberries.  This was the first experience for Madison who is 6 and we quickly picked a box of strawberries in 20 minutes.  Also the strawberries were the sweetest we have had in a very long time.  Madison had eaten 10 before we made it home.  Thank you for the wonderful experience.