B is for Berry and also for Mmmm...

The Warrens celebrated Memorial Day with a trip to the Roca Berry Farm for the kick-off of the 2010 strawberry season. If you make the first right after entering, you can purchase cartons of pre-picked berries for $2.00/lb. Or, you can travel a bit further down the long dirt road and tromp through the fields with basket in hand for $1.25/lb. Personally, I think I'd pay extra for the pick-your-own experience. Few things can say "summer is here" like the sticky-sweet aroma of strawberries baking in the hot May sun.

Husbadoodle and Cass sat back in the shade and I headed for the sea of dark green shrubbery. The picking window is short - 3 weeks at most - so we got there early to get the jump on our competition. There were still quite a few unripened berries, though. I was told by one of the few seasonal workers to push back the leaves and root around near the earth. Sure enough, lumps and mounds that I first took for dirt were actually the plumpest, choicest berries, half-buried by their own weight. I worked my way along the row and every so often I thought, that's more than enough for just the two of us. But the allure of that sugary smell made me drunk with the pleasure of being out, plucking away, watching the berry pulp stain my fingers.

I almost feel like I never really had a strawberry before this. Deeply red and rich and juicy, the skin didn't make a whisper of sound when I bit into it. There was no hint of resistance in the texture.


I'm pretty much ruined for store-bought fruit now. I think I'll head down to the farmer's market on Saturday for some cherries as well. Who knows? Maybe I'll even try my hand at growing a pineapple plant!

Roca Berry Farm reopens in the fall for pumpkin season and goes big with haunted houses and barns, fair-style munchies (candy apples, funnel cakes, kettle corn and more) and hayrides. I know where we'll be getting our jack-o-lanterns this year...