Of Berries Worth Their Weight in Gold

Carlsbad, the city where we live, is well known not only for Legoland, but also for it's strawberry fields. Kayla, Adrianna, the kids and I, along with my youngest brother Joseph, who was visiting at the time, decided to take a trip to some U-pick fields nearby for a strawberry picking expedition. I had visions of coming home with oodles of sweet juicy berries to make loads of jam and pies with. We got there to the farm, super excited, with lots of bags to put our loads of berries in, and went up to the counter to check in and get instructions. Imagine my shock when I saw the prices they had listed--a one pint container was...get this...eight dollars. EIGHT DOLLARS! We're talking about a cup and a half's worth of berries here, folks. I tried to stifle my gasp of shock (keep in mind I had been buying a pound of berries at Wal-mart for .88!), gulped, and so as not to disappoint the kids, told the lady I would take a pint. On the up-side, I was happy to find out that they did allow as much taste testing as one wanted, so I told all the kids to eat hearty! They were delicious berries--amazingly delicious, and thank goodness for Joseph's help. He certainly did his part to help us get our eight bucks worth of berries, as you can see in the photo at the bottom! (On second glance, that particular picture might have been Kayla's bucket--she got the two pint bucket!)