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Strawberry Picking (11.0)

Anyone else love family traditions?!?!

Eleven years ago, my mom planned our first trip to pick strawberries. We all loved it SO much, we continued the tradition each season.

During my time in Arkansas (even though it was kind-of sad), I tried to continue our strawberry-picking tradition. So naturally, with us ALL back together in Georgia now, we KNEW we couldn’t miss an opportunity to make NEW memories!

With many of the other strawberry patches either closed completely or not allowing ‘you pick’ this year (curbside pick-up only), we went to Mitcham Farm in Oxford. The strawberries were beautiful! The animals were a bonus! But the HOT strawberry donuts (deep fried and crispy with a strawberry icing melting on the top), boiled peanuts, watermelons, strawberry ice cream and strawberry slushy made it WORTH the drive!


Favorite Strawberry-Picking Moments:
2011: Just Ross & Rayna
2012: Pregnant with Ruthie
2013: Baby Ruthie
2014: Big girl Ruthie
2017: Keeping the tradition alive in Arkansas!

TIPS:
* Don’t forgot to call or check social media sites before going to any patch. Normally, they only open based on availability (…and may close early).

* If you’re looking for fun PHOTOGRAPHS:
LIGHTING is KEY! Ideally, choose a clear day and go either in the EVENING or MORNING. Make sure the sun is behind the person you’re photographing. (These images have a lot of unnecessary facial shadows because we met at 1pm and the sun was, unfortunately, directly above us.)
… Isles can get crowded with other pickers (which isn’t ideal for photos). Often, I’ll lead my kids to empty areas (even if they are out-of-the-way) where there are no other people (aka: distractions).
…My mom always brings pretty baskets. They supply plastic containers with their logo, but we use wooden (yard sale) baskets until we check out.
… To all the MOTHERS out there, as ALWAYS, GET IN THE PHOTOS!!! Set your automatic timer, ask a stranger or take a selfie. But, your kids will want to remember YOU being there with them!
… Be mindful of clothes. I RARELY say a word about how my kids dress. However, for strawberry picking, I do try to be more mindful about their colors and selections. (This year, for example, Ross spent the night with his cousin and I didn’t realize he had on a logo-shirt. You can see in the first photo, I’m actually using my hand to kind-of ‘hide’ the font where it didn’t take-away from the image.)

* Instead of allowing each child to gather as many as they’d like (and being shocked when it’s time to pay), we always tell the kids to “find 10 perfect strawberries!” Yes, it always turns into WAY more than 10, but with 5 kids, it’s a good place to start (because all those baskets add up quickly)!

Hope this helps! Tag me on FB if your family goes! I LOVE seeing photos!

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