It's a tradition that every year my daughter and I go strawberry picking. As she's gotten older, she's better at picking the very best berries. This year they were especially lovely. We picked some with stems so that they could be dipped in chocolate or whipped cream.
If you get a chance to pick berries this year, there are a couple of things you might want to keep in mind. Wearing a wide brimmed hat and gloves are a good idea. The hat shades your face from the sun. You might also want to wear suntan lotion. The gloves come in handy if you don't care too much for the "critters" that are sometimes found around the berry plants. My daughter didn't care too much for the spider she picked with one of the berries.
Once you're home with the berries, what do you do? I washed and drained my berries. I then put them in the refrigerator to keep until I needed them. You can freeze the berries, but they do tend to turn to mush. If you decide to freeze them, I'd clean and hull them first. At this point, you can either keep them whole or slice them prior to freezing.
I just love these red berries. It doesn't matter, plain or in a dessert, they're wonderful to eat.
