I have never been so thankful for Washington’s wide open natural spaces than in the midst of quarantine. Our family normally likes berry picking in the summer, but even MORE so now that we can’t really go anywhere else. Last summer, we only made it out to blueberry picking in North Bend, but this summer I was SO READY for strawberries and raspberries.
We decided to check out Remlinger Farms in Carnation this year. They’re known for their pumpkin patch and kid friendly attractions (during non-pandemic times). For us it takes about half an hour to get there.
Word of warning: toddlers don’t actually pick berries all that well. Jemma was really interested in helping us, but it’s hard work, even for adults! Her fine motor skills could probably still use some work, as well 😉
Luckily, even after she lost interest in actually picking the berries, she enjoyed just walking around outside. I don’t know if it’s the quarantine, but she’s been shockingly chill out in public these days.
So it also turns out, strawberry picking is actually really hard when you’re super pregnant. Just saying. Make sure to bring sun protection too, because if it’s sunny out there there is NO shade. But it was totally worth it. Berries were $2 a pound and we ended up with over six pounds of strawberries. Great haul!
Just picking the strawberries themselves took over an hour, so even though raspberry fields were open at the same time, we came back another day.
Speaking of which, raspberries are INFINITELY easier to pick than strawberries, not having to crouch on the ground. I do think we showed up just a hair too early in the season. Many of the berries weren’t ripe yet. Still, with a bit of hunting and extra work, we managed to get another six pounds.
Jemma also seemed to enjoy the raspberry picking a bit more. Maybe because she ate them as she went along?
Now, what did we do with all the berries?
Well, right away I froze two pounds each to save for use throughout the winter.
But I REALLY enjoyed making fresh fruit drinks! I made a sparkling raspberry mint limeade and a strawberry basil lemonade. Check out my rough recipe below.
Basic fruity lemonade/limeade recipe, per glass:
- 1/4 cup fresh fruit puree (just blend the fruit raw)
- 1/4 cup fresh squeezed citrus (lime or lemon)
- 1/4 cup herb infused simple syrup
- 1/4 cup water or sparkling water
Have you ever made a simple syrup before? It’s just equal parts sugar and water, dissolved on the stove. You can add herbs while it’s simmering too, to infuse the flavor! For basil, add equal parts basil to the syrup while it’s simmering. For mint, I added it after I took the syrup off the heat and let it infuse overnight in the fridge. I didn’t want the syrup to taste too much like mint tea, you know?
Other Fruity Concoctions
The strawberries we picked were SUPER RIPE, so I wanted to use them right away. I ended up cooking most of them down with sugar to make Bravetart’s strawberry ice cream. There’s not a recipe online, but I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend her dessert cookbook (Disclaimer: affiliate link). It’s got the steps really broken down into detail and is full of classic recipes I keep going back to.
I had a little leftover strawberry syrup from the ice cream, so I threw it at the bottom of my milk tea to make a copycat Happy Lemon strawberry black tea crema. If you know you know.
I also used it to make a strawberry cream soda, WHICH WAS AMAZING! It was super easy too. I don’t know why I’ve never tried making cream soda before.
Fruity Cream Soda Recipe, per glass:
- 1-2 tbsp fruity syrup (cook down some fresh fruit with some sugar on the stovetop, ratios are flexible depending on how sweet you like it)
- sparkling water
- 1-2 tsp heavy cream
I don’t really understand the science of cream soda, but when you stir up that bubbly water with the cream, it gets all foamy and cool and fun!
Also, if you’re confused about the whole fruity syrup thing – a lot of times I just throw a cup of fresh berries and 1-2 tbsp sugar into a saucepan and cook it down into a syrup for pancakes or waffles. You can use that same leftover syrup as a loose fruit spread on toast… or throw it into drinks like cream soda. If things are not sweet enough for you, just add some simple syrup or sugar.
Lastly, I also made raspberry mint jam and strawberry rose jam, which I forgot to take pictures of. I feel like everyone makes jam after they go berry picking, though, so that’s nothing new.
If the fruit we picked was maybe a little less ripe, I probably would’ve made some pie as well. Oh well, maybe next year. Or maybe with the frozen fruit. We’ll see!
If you’ve got any suggestions for other u-pick farms in the area to visit or any suggestions for what to do with my frozen fruit, please let me know!