Pick Your Own

As I drove into the car park of the local farm shop to buy some fruit and veg, I saw the sign PYO.

Yes "Pick Your Own Strawberries" it said.

And this is how I was led down the path of temptation.

Strawberry picking or going home to do the housework?

Hmmmm. Not difficult.

The housework could wait. The worst that would happen is chaos. If the strawberries aren't picked they'll go off and what a waste that would be. That was my excuse anyway, in the hope that Mr A would never use it as grounds for divorce.

The excuse for the morning was school assembly and I can't remember what Monday's was now. It seems so long ago. But you can see I am very easily led and distracted by things that are more exciting than the laundry. Always have been and I suppose I always will. No wonder there's always a depletion of pants, as highlighted in a former post!

So I spent the afternoon with Little T, picking some delicious strawberries and raspberries.

I envisaged it would be a great opportunity for some fantastic teamwork. Delicious time for mother and son bonding. However, I'm not sure if his contribution of sitting in my basket and watching me from the corner of the field mounted to a team effort, even if he insisted that he was looking after my things.

Surely with his height and a nose for strawberries, he would have the advantage. Instead he preferred the spectator sport of watching his mother crouch down among the strawberry plants to see how quickly she could fill the basket.

We are real fans of strawberries in our house and during an average week in summer, we can spend up to £10 on the delicious soft fruit that can't help but encapsulate sunny days. The basket that you see here contained about a kilo of strawberries and only cost £3.50. At our local Tesco Express I'd only get about 300g for the same price and it's not much cheaper on the market.

Using the PYO has also meant reduced packaging, with a basket that can be used time and time again. So it's a shame the farm's strawberry picking season is over next week. No sooner discovered than "disparu"... until next year that is. A good job really, as I'd never get any work done!

However on the subject of packaging I asked the owners of the PYO why strawberries need the annoying little piece of bubble wrap that normally sits at the bottom of punnets of strawberries that are sold in shops. It's become really fashionable of late.

They had no idea what benefit it served.

Which leaves me wondering whether it is needed after all?

Perhaps it's time to decide as I launch a brand new site called....

BIN 101.

So please click on the link to have a peek in the bin and tell me what you think of those little bits of bubble wrap

In the meantime, I'm off to rescue the housework situation before Mr A tells me it's strawberry fields forever.

No rest for the wicked eh!
________________________________________________________