Attention Joe Schumacher….

Bill is creaming his row. I already called Sue to tell on him.

And you too, Pete and Ted Etzel.  All of those years that I spent picking your strawberries really sucked.  It was muddy and messy and gross.  It took a lot of effort to pick those berries.  Should I sit on the ground to pick or should I opt to straddle the row, bending over whilst harvesting?  Will the berries be so small that it will take FOREVER to fill my carrier? 

Well, I have found the greatest berry picking farm ever. 

Up until now, I had avoided all u-pick farms and instead allowed someone else to do the picking for me.  Too many flashbacks to moldy berries and spiders kept me out of the fields.  I willingly will pay a heftier price per pound when I don’t have to do the labor.  Then I realized that maybe I was depriving my kids of some good, hard work experience. 

So last night we traversed the 2 miles up the road to Cabbage Farms.  And there, I found berry nirvana.  Row upon row of large berries.  And best of all, the bushed are planted in mounded rows–under groundcloth!  There’s no dirt!  The berries just lie so tidily on top of the protective cloth and the bushes are raised to a non-back-breaking height.  It was great.  We picked for 20 minutes and harvested 40 pounds.  Seriously. 

We’re going back today.

Only people from Oregon who ever picked strawberries will understand the above references.  Yes, I am aware that both Etzels are no longer with us.  I think that last night, they looked down on me from heaven and smiled.  And then maybe snickered a little.