Strawberry Picking


 This week had been really hot, reaching 28c most days. I felt it the most when I went on a little work road trip to visit some of my libraries. I was wearing my special Library branded polo shirt and jeans (you'll see why in a few weeks) so I was really hot and sweaty just walking across the car park. Both buildings were really lovely and I got to meet some of the people I've been emailing, but haven't met in person yet. One of them even had a garden out back where volunteers were working on planting and watering new flowers. 


On Saturday, we made some pancakes and then called Mitchell's mum for a bit for Mothers Day. 

Not intentionally heart shaped, but cute all the same

I then got picked up by Andrea and Susan and we went to a little market in Riverside. It was a crystal themed one, so it had healing crystals, intention candles, spell jars, vegan food and some vintage clothes. Very interesting! We then headed out to Costa Mesa for some desert (before our dinner) we got some ice cream (I had s'mores flavour and chocolate chip banana bread flavour). We ate this in the queue for doughnuts (of which we bought several). 


We then took the doughnuts to Newport Beach to eat. It was a little chilly already as the sun was going down and it was overcast that day. There were still people swimming though! We ate some of the doughnuts; I tried the thin mint, samoa, churro and cinnamon flavours. 

Once it started to get dark, we went to the area where Mitchell was having his improv show that night. There were a few food places around and we got some noodles while we waited for the show to start. The others hadn't seen improv before, but I think they enjoyed it. 

The next morning, I called my mum and then we had a list of things to do that day. Since I got my first proper pay check that Friday, we were going shopping! The first stop was the sports shop to get Mitchell a proper pair of hiking shoes. We managed to find some good ones quickly and noticed how the store had a lot of other camping equipment in case we ever needed it in the future. The next stop was to get him some more jeans, as he threw away a pair with holes in a while ago and we never got around to replacing them. We also got some trousers that weren't jeans so that he can wear them on hikes without being mocked. 

As we were at the mall, we got burritos for lunch from the food court before heading out to our main stop of the day, strawberry picking! We went to Tanaka Farms (where we also went for pumpkin picking and sunflower picking) and it was a really fun day out! We started with the the wagon tour which took us around the fields and showed us all of the crops they're currently growing. 

All aboard!

Picking the kale

Driving through the sugar cane field

We made a stop to pick a 'seasonal vegetable' which today was kale! We got to pick a bag each, so I'll be making some tasty soups or curries this week with it. We then stopped at the strawberry fields and had a punnet each to fill with fresh ripe strawberries. 

I found a good one

Sniffing out the best ones

Filled with goodness

Baskets filled, the wagon took us back to the main part of the farm where we got to go and see the barnyard animals. They had a miniature horse, a miniature cow, and a miniature pig. They were all very friendly and came over for pets. Inside the barn they had a lot of sheep and goats and some miniature donkeys which again were all very friendly. Just as we were leaving, it was dinner time, so there was a lot of noise from them all when they saw the bales of hay coming! The pig especially was the noisiest pig I've ever heard! 


The pony was called Pinto Bean

Once we'd seen the animals, we went to the produce stand where we could buy some more of the fresh fruit and vegetables they were growing on the farm. We bought an avocado, a pepper, and some sugar cane. They were also growing onions, radishes, bananas and more, but we didn't buy them. We also bought some fresh bread and a sample pack of honey. 


When we got home, we dug into our haul and had avocado on the bread and then taste tested all of the honeys. We had peach, lemon, mango, cinnamon, orange blossom and sour grape flavours and I think lemon or orange blossom was my favourite. Although, I could be wrong; they weren't labelled individually, so we had to guess what each flavour was. We then opened the strawberries and ate an entire punnet as they were so soft and fresh. We also tried the sugar cane (after watching a video on how to prepare it). We chopped off a section and then peeled it. You then eat it by chewing and getting all the sugary sweet juice and then discarding the tough fibers. 

All in all, a lovely weekend.

Lots of Love

Emily and Mitchell xxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

England and Wales

After we arrived back in England, we managed to see a lot of friends and family over Christmas, but not everyone. So once the festivities were over, we went on a little tour to visit some more people we hadn't seen in a few years.  Right after Christmas, we headed to the North by visiting Mitchell's mum for a few days. We took some lovely walks through the countryside and along the beach. One day we walked from Sutton on Sea to Chapel St Leonards to visit the North Sea Observatory. We walked through fields and followed the coastline all the way down.  We also went to Donna Nook and saw some seals! On New Year's Day, Mitchell and his mum went for a dip in the ocean! Another day we did the Top of the Wolds trail, which was about 5 miles. We started in the little village of South Elkington, and about half way we stopped for lunch in Louth. At one point we could see all the way across the fields and back to Louth's church.  We also did a day trip to Lincoln to see the stree...
Read more

New Zealand

Image
 After Singapore, our next destination was New Zealand! This was something I'd been looking forward to, as it promised to be a mountain lover's dream.  We spent the first three days in Christchurch, exploring the city and catching up on sleep after our long flights. Our first full day, we walked around the city and running some errands. We had to print off our taxes so we went to the public library which was very fancy and had a rooftop garden.  We then had to post our taxes, so we went in search of a post office. We found a booth in a chemist and sent them off, so we don't have to worry about them any more for this year. Errands complete, we grabbed some lunch in a little shopping centre and then continued on exploring the city. There isn't a lot to see in the city centre itself, but we did find a very busy market food hall which we earmarked for dinner. We did get some milkshakes and take them down to the river to drink. There was a nice river walk which bordered the ...
Read more

Japan pt 1: Tokyo and Kyoto

We arrived later than expected into Japan as our first flight was delayed and we missed our connection. So we grabbed some food in the Shanghai airport while we waited for our new flight, but it wasn't long until we were touching down in Tokyo! On day one we went to a little cafe for breakfast that did veggie plates and rice balls, and then it was into the city to explore. We went to Akihabra, or electric town, which has tons of tech, video game and anime stores. We bought some fun headphones and a crepe and looked around some of the shops.  We also went to visit a bunny cafe! On day two, we went to the Shibuya scramble, one of the busiest crossings in the world. It was mainly busy with tourists taking photos, but all the light up billboards around the place were pretty iconic. We also went to visit the Hachiko statue of the most loyal dog who waited for his owner outside the station for nine years.  We then went to the Pokemon centre to look at all the Pokemon and other Ninte...
Read more