Early this spring I decided to join an organic csa. They pick most of the produce and pack it into boxes which are shipped off to various distribution centers scattered around Colorado for pickup by members. However, there are two crops that require the members to pick if they want any: asparagus and strawberries. I decided not to pick asparagus because I didn’t think I’d want enough to make it worth a drive to the farm. However, I love strawberries so I made an appointment to pick.

It’s been years (decades?) since I last picked strawberries and I couldn’t really remember what was involved. When I called the farm, I was told to bring “flat” boxes (strawberries get squished if piled too high on top of each other). I wandered down in our basement and discovered that the top of paper ream boxes seemed about the perfect size.

Today turned out to be very cloudy and windy. Fortunately, Colorado has a tendency to rain so I had stuck in a rain coat but it was still colder than I expected. Usually I take a walk during lunch but decided to abort the exercise today due to the wind. Unfortunately, the wind hadn’t stopped by the time I was ready to leave for the farm. As I pulled up, another car pulled up and two women from Denver emerged. They had also picked the 6:00 time slot to pick.

We were each given a row to pick and told we could pick as much as we wanted. It was nice having two other people in the vicinity to talk to as we picked. I discovered that I’m quite pampered. My back doesn’t like picking strawberries for extended periods of time. I was also very surprised by the state of the strawberry rows. Granted the last time I picked was years ago but I rememberd neat rows of strawberries with lots of fruit to pick. Probably due to the organic nature of this farm, the strawberry plants were in neat rows but they also had a fare number of weeds interspersed with the strawberry plants.

By the time I filled two boxes, the other two people decided they had enough of the wind and quit. I figured this was a good time for me to quit too. I didn’t end up picking as much as I would have preferred but I did get more than I was afraid I might. When I arrived back home, I weighed the strawberries and discovered I had picked around 14 lbs.

Growing up, mom spent a lot of the summer canning and freezing. Mom allowed us to watch movies if we helped her which was a treat for us. So, I spent many hours during the summer watching The Sound of Music, The King and I, and Fiddler on the Roof. Feeling a bit nostalgic, I decided to listen to Fiddler on the Roof as I washed, stemmed and froze the extra strawberries.

The experience was kind of fun. However, I’m very glad that I don’t have to do this for a living!