Strawberry Festival at Green Bluffs

It's Strawberry time!! We went to Green Bluff on Saturday and had a wonderful time! The kids said they never had fresh picked strawberries before, so we thought it was a great time to take them out there. They even had "fresh" strawberry smoothies--yum, yum!! They were AWESOME!!

OK, now some education on Green Bluff...taken from their website:

The present day Green Bluff Growers......is an association of small family farms and food stands. Seasonal activities include pick-your-own fruit and annual festivals such as:
June Strawberry Celebration
July Cherry Festival
June Cherry Pickers' Trot and Pit Spit
August Peach Festival
September Apple Harvest Festival
That's a big change......from the earliest days of the growers' association, which formed in 1902. In those days, the group's mission was to protect local strawberry growers from outside competition. Now, the association helps local farmers with agricultural tourism. The promise of an old fashion farm experience brings thousands of visitors each year to the rolling hills northeast of Spokane.
--------------------------------------------------------------
If you're from the city......and have never had an opportunity to pick your own fruit or are simply out enjoying a ride on a beautiful day, take a drive out to Green Bluff. There are two loops, the West and East, full of small farms for the adventurous visitor to discover. Part of what makes Green Bluff unique in the entire country is the large concentration of farms (over 30) within such a relatively small area (approx. 12 square miles.)
--------------------------------------------------------------
It's fun because...... the experience and crops you'll find vary by season. For example, arrive in early August and buy apricots picked less than an hour before. While eating the juicy and still warm fruit, take a moment to examine the beauty of a golden wheat field beside the road.
Or come sometime mid-September......through October for the Apple Festival. What started a couple of decades ago as a one-day celebration of apples at the Green Bluff Grange has evolved into a six-week, all-out apple frenzy. Just like the old days, Green Bluff's more than two dozen growers continue to sell bushel upon bushel of Jonagolds, Granny Smiths and Fujis. But now they also entice families with live music, hayrides, corn mazes, pony rides and petting zoos.
The Green Bluff Growers Association......may have changed somewhat over the last 100 years, but the country hospitality of its members remains just as warm and friendly as a century ago.

Map of the area farms a lot to choose from

Strawberry fields....forever!!Where do we start? Can we eat any?Is this a good one, Mom? Isn't it just tiny? Think it taste good? Caite thought so!Don't they look delicious?Ate so many strawberries, they are coming out the back end!!Caite having fun picking berriesWOW!! Do you think we can eat all these??"I got into a fight with a strawberry and the strawberry won!"YUMMY!!Are we done yet???

I am SOOO Glad that they did not weigh us before we went out into the fields, because the amount of strawberries that were eaten...we would have had to a pay a fortune!!

When we left here, we stopped at Albertsons, bought some angel food cake and whip cream...went out to Grandma and Grandpa's and had dessert with Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Dave, Aunt Tae and Sydney....boy was it delicious! We have a lot of strawberries that are frozen. On Sunday morning-we had strawberries in our oatmeal-that was Caite's idea and it was wonderful!

Next up is cherry picking time and the cherry trot........