Spring is more than officially here in New Orleans! Saturday afternoon it was a beautiful 72 degrees and Colleen, Jeri, Daniel and I headed northwest to a strawberry farm we found on the internet. This weekend is the famous Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival and the farm was only about 10 minutes from Ponchatoula. According to the website, this festival is second only to Mardi Gras in size. Traffic backed up on both directions on the interstate was good confirmation of that!

We headed west of town and down a small country road was the farm. I remember going to the Berry Patch south of Nevada, Iowa with my mom when I was young. Mostly I remember the big, hot fields but I also remember the little store they had. From my memories, it was pretty clear where you were supposed to go when you got there. This place wasn't so much that way. As you go down the driveway it is at first hard to tell where you are supposed to go, but we figured it out.


The lady told us that she had just received a call that their strawberries had won grand champion at the festival, so we knew we were in the right place! Walking out into the field, it didn't seem like there were that many berries, but kneel down and move some leaves and they were everywhere! We each purchased a gallon bucket and went to town. I have never seen strawberries like this before. They were almost iridescent in color and sparkled about as much as my nail polish. It was hard to walk away when my bucket was full.

The whole way home all we could smell was strawberries and we certainly ate plenty last night. Ms. Jeri made a salad with strawberries and cheesecake with strawberry drizzle and I made a smoothie. I put them on my Special K this morning and will be eating them pretty much every day for the next several days. They will be in season until the middle of May, and I have a feeling we may end up back there before then.