Strawberry Shortcake

I’ve wanted to visit Rodgers you-pick Strawberry field for a couple of years now and this year we finally made it!

AB had a softball game in Ft. White one Saturday morning and on our way back home we decided to detour through Alachua and then head up to Rodgers.

They took us out to the field on a wagon and dropped us off with our buckets after they’d assigned a row for us to pick.

Grammy & the girls

Our side of the wagon

Within minutes, we had enough berries, but we couldn’t stop picking them. We ended up with A LOT, but it was tons of fun and the strawberries were too pretty to just leave on the vine.

We enjoyed our fresh strawberries for days, and they lasted so much longer than when we buy them in the store. We froze some for making ice cream this summer, and then we decided to try our hand at making strawberry jam.

Mamie and I spent one evening making it, and she had the best time helping me.

We were so proud when all of our jars sealed and we can’t wait to taste it to see if it’s edible. Ha. 

Speaking of strawberries – the girls and I made a cake for the high school alumni association fundraiser. The group hosted a big cake/pie auction, organized by DW’s aunt, to raise money for the new middle/high school. Mamie was so excited to be a part of the auction, and she even got to go (and bid/buy a cake) with her Daddy & Pappy.

She helped me buy all the ingredients for our strawberry layer cake and she told me she hoped the cake sold for $3.00. I was hoping for more than that, but certainly didn’t expect to hear that it had sold for $500.00!!! The auction was a huge success and raised over $25,000.00! I was blown away by the way the community came together to support such a great cause – I hope our generation will always be as generous as the ones before us, and that we will teach our children to do the same.

~amw~