Strawberry Season: The First Lap of Summer

Let me take you down
'Cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields
Nothing is real
And nothing to get hung about
Strawberry Fields forever

— John Lennon, Strawberry Fields

Well, suffice to say Lennon’s Strawberry Fields is not actually a song about about fields full of strawberries. But I would be remiss if I didn’t hear the happy-go-lucky melody running through my head while picking strawberries at our favorite local farm. Strawberry picking season is one of my favorite things about summer – in a way, I like to think of it as the first lap of summer, the prelude to salty beach days and afternoon baseball games. It’s relatively short, but sweet, in New Jersey lasting about two to three weeks from mid-May to early June — and these small but mighty delicious berries are definitively the crown jewel of summertime fruits in New Jersey.

This is baby Helena’s first strawberry season! She was born last July, just after strawberry picking season was over. I can’t believe how fast a year has gone by, and despite how it may look in these photos, baby girl was really way more into the wood chips and stems! We spent the afternoon at Terhune Orchards, and she wanted nothing to do with strawberries until the last 10 minutes before we had to leave. I kept trying to tempt her with juicy, red strawberries, and she just kept climbing over me to get to dirt and sticks.

What do you love most about summertime?