Strawberry Picking

'Tis the season for strawberries, folks! And in MN, where summer lasts about 16 days, and then turns instantly into a 12.5-month-long blizzard, we have to make the most of it. So, off we went, this past weekend, to Afton Apple Orchard (& Strawberry Farm) in Afton State Park -- not too far from Minneapolis, a 30 minute drive maybe -- and [romance!] just the two of us! <3 <3 <3 (hearts!)

[Hold on... wait a sec. Just the two of us? What?! There were supposed to be like 9 people who wanted to go with us -- what happened to all of them, huh? Where were they when the time came?! Where?! Answer: Not a single one of them was conscious at 8am when we woke up, and then everyone who *claimed* they wanted to go totally canceled on us. Well fine then! Who needs them and their excuses -- whatever people, just be lazy bums and sleep. Be jealous of these awesome pics.]

So like I said, we were dating, just the two of us, going on a little road-trip to pick strawberries. In no time at all, we were out in the country, in the beautiful summer sunshine. It was only the fifth day of the 16 days of summer here in MN, so we saw fields of very young corn (it looks just as leafy as fully-grown tall corn, but it's uh, just not-so-fully-grown)... anyway, the corn fields looked like oceans of green leafy waves, idyllic and undulating in the summer breeze, under the cerulean sky and the occasional billowing white clouds.

Our car sailed on the seas of farmland, going over hills and into valleys as smoothly as a lazy yacht out on the Pacific. When we arrived and opened our car door, the smell of strawberries flooded our senses. It was as though the strawberry fields went on forever! (I think the Beatles wrote that song about this part.) We ran free through the fields, we saw kids on a "train of cows," we took silly photos, smelled the gentle breeze and fresh country air, took in the glowing sunshine, and most importantly: gathered a crate full of the best-tasting strawberries you could possibly imagine.

Oh yes. You might be wondering how much a crate of the best-ever tasting strawberries goes for, these days. At the grocery store you'll of course see prices of up to $4.79 (!) per little clam-shell with, what, like 10 strawberries in it, maybe, if you're lucky? Or three giant mutant ones (see pic below)? Well folks, hold on to your socks because our gigantic crate of strawberries cost us exactly... 7 buckaroos! That's right, $7. Don't look in the mirror now, you'll totally freak out when you see yourself all green with jealousy.

But anyway, we highly recommend you try it for yourself -- go strawberry picking before July (and summer?) is over!!!

This blog post was written by Russian.

The pictures below were taken by Asian: