It's that time of year again - strawberry U-picking with my kids

Strawberry season came early this year to our part of the world (that would be just outside Vancouver on Canada's west coast). It's been a dry and sunny spring, so the berries were ready for picking a few weeks early.

Going to the U-pick for strawberries has become a family tradition. The kids love it: both the picking AND the eating, and it's a great activity to do with them. As an added bonus, we end up with a whole lot of fresh strawberries, freezer jam, and frozen berries.

Picking our berries a couple of years ago.

We usually don't pick for longer than an hour, and this year we ended up with about 8 kilos of berries: that's about half our usual haul, partly because the berries were smaller than usual (because of the lack of rainfall, though they were also very sweet because of all the sunshine), and partly because the fields were busy and it was probably a bit early in the season. Still, we brought it all home and enjoyed every berry!

As usual, we headed to Ladner's Westham Island, though we couldn't pick at our usual place (Bissett Farms) since they had been picked out the day before we got there. Still, we found a great place to pick at Ellis Farms, part of the Westham Island Herb Farm.

Strawberry fields forever.

U-picks and farmer's markets are a great way to get outside with your kids, and get some tasty fruit, berries and veggies at the same time. You also do save some money compared to buying the produce already picked, but the main attraction is just the joy of doing something together.