NQBR (Not Quite Bento Related):
I picked strawberries this past Thursday at a nearby "U-Pick" farm - they were all really ripe so I had to make jam and such as soon as I could. My jam turned out about as well as my octo-dogs usually do, so I have a lot of strawberry sauce - about enough to drown a Queen Mary sized bowl of ice cream.
It is good!!
I noticed there were several philosophies of picking posture: the kneelers, the backbenders, the sitters, and the changers. I was a changer. As various body parts went to sleep or started to ache, I would move.
It made me think about being a migrant worker who does this all day every day for a meager living. And this gave me a real gestalt shift when walking down the produce aisle in the supermarket -- all the human work hours that lie behind those piles of berries, cherries, tomatoes, heads of lettuce... It's a little scary to contemplate. From one perspective, our food is expensive (prices have gone up). From another angle though, it is far too cheap.
Did you go to Fink's? That's where we went (it was my great grandparents (not berry) farm and where I learned to ride my bike on that long, newly (then)paved driveway and climbed the hay bales in the old barn... We go pick there every year, both for the berries and to give my memories an infusion. I'm definitely a 'changer' when I pick... kneeling, bending, stretching, swearing, but the berries are sure worth it. And LOVE the 18 jars of freezer jam waiting for me!
ReplyDeleteYes!! It was Finks...how neat that your family owned it and you have memories... The berries are super aren't they? I too climbed hay bales when I was a young sprout - I remember the itchiness later!!
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