Strawberry Fields Forever

Wednesday, 06 July 2016

I had a lovely weekend playing at farm parks with my friends. I had two favourite parts – one was horse-riding for the first time with my friend Georgia; the other was strawberry picking with my BFF Euan. Here’s a little story about it along with some strawberry facts, an awesome tip from my clever Mummy to make your strawbs’ last longer and a strawberry craft idea for the summer holidays…

I’ve only got eyes for yummy strawberries!

Briarlands Farm

We visited the wonderful Briarlands Farm on Saturday which is one of my favourite places to hang out. There is always plenty to do there from the bouncy pillows to go-karting, petting the animals to going on tractor rides (and we did ALL of that!) At this time of year Briarlands is extra special as you can pick your own strawberries too. So, Euan, Tilda and I went off to the polytunnels to get picking. All of the strawberries at Briarlands are raised up which makes them easy for us to pick. Tilda and I picked a whole punnet each (and may have popped one or two in our mouths along the way, just to make sure they tasted OK, oh and yes they did! But ssshhh, don’t tell anyone!)

Euan and I had a great time strawberry picking!

Strawberry Facts

So, I thought that seeing as strawberries are in season, that I would share some amazing strawb’ facts with you. Did you know that…

• Strawberries are the only fruit to wear their seeds on the outside?!
• There are 200 seeds on an average strawberry!
• Strawberries are actually a member of the rose family!
• Strawberries are the first fruit to ripen.
• Strawberries have more Vitamin C per serving than an orange.

We had lots of punnets full of yummy strawberries to take home!

And one last fact from my super clever mummy. If you are buying LOTS of strawberries like we did at Briarlands, which might take (even strawberry lovers like me and Tilda) a few days to eat, here’s how to make them last longer. Mix 4 cups of water with 1/2 cup of any type of vinegar. Sit the strawberries in the mixture for 2-3 minutes, give them a swirl round then rinse off with some water. Leave them to air dry. Use the vinegar mixture to clean out your punnets so there are no spores left in there. Your strawberries will last longer (if you don’t eat them all first!) and don’t worry, they definitely don’t taste of vinegar.

Make sure your strawberries are left to dry before putting them away

Strawberry craft project

And one way to make your strawberries last forever is with a lovely craft project for the summer holidays. You just need some pebbles and some paint and you can make your very own strawberry patch!

Happy strawberry picking everyone!