Adventures Strawberry Picking (& Mini Golfing)

Strawberries are in season, starting May and ending in June.

So, today we stopped by Sunnycrest Farm and picked 3 pounds of strawberries, 

or in u-pick terms 2 quarts @ $2.25 a pound. 

There was surprisingly a good amount of people there for 10AM.

Then again, pick your own is only available from 7AM to 12PM.

Before we went out on a strawberry picking adventure, 

we looked up some tips on strawberry picking :

General Tips

• Pick only plump, firm, red strawberries. 
• Unripe strawberries do not continue to ripen once they are picked.
• Small berries are the most flavorful.
• Avoid placing the picked berries in the sunshine any longer than necessary, and chill as soon as possible to help preserve them.
• Only wash the strawberries when you're about to use them. Washing them before hand makes them more prone to spoiling.
• Be careful not to over-purchase as strawberries quickly mold when left at room temperature, and only last a couple of days in the refrigerator.
• Freeze berries that you can not use right away - just wash, cut the hulls off and put them into a ziplock bag, removing as much air as possible. (You can use a straw to remove the hulls by poking it up through the bottom of the strawberry.)
• It only takes about 10 to 15 minutes to pick a quart if fields are plentiful.

And our own personal tip : If you're given a specific row, walk to the end of the row and start picking there. When people are given rows they start at the beginning, and by the time they get to the end their containers are already full.

• The best berries are always at the end of the rows.

Picking Techniques

• Grasp the stem just above the berry between your forefinger, and your thumb nail and pull with a slight twisting motion.
• Carefully place the berries into your containers to avoid bruising.
• Don't over fill or try to pack your containers, filling your containers with over 5 inches of berries will cause the berries in the bottom to become squished.

After we finished picking strawberries we stopped by

Mammoth Green Driving Range & Mini Golf for a round of mini golf.

Unfortunately, I lost 63 to 53. I did however have 2 hole-in-ones.