They Joys of Summer

Starting the picking at Patten's Farm in Gorham.

The sun has finally come out in New England! And with it, so do the locals. I picked strawberries yesterday for the first time in more years than I can count. My mother and I took my nephew, who instead picked the flowers and 'prickly things' growing between the strawberries. I love this image, though, because there is something about slowing down to discover things that so many of us forget to do. This small unfamiliar plant sparked his curiosity and kept him happy, more so than any amount of strawberry picking may have done.

Max in a strawberry field.

Which is good since he didn't pick a single berry! My mother and I slaved in the heat for hours...

Not really. But we did a decent job considering the season is pretty much done and the rain has not been a friend to some of our summer crops here in Maine. I went home and juiced a bunch of mine right away. Cuz that's what I do these days, I juice things. I worked hard to get those strawberries so I am going to use up every last one of them! And as I do I will be reminded of that piece of prickly grass and Max's day of sparked curiosity.



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