"Strawberry Fields Forever"

Finally! After 4 years of living in Finland, I finally got to visit a strawberry farm! It was absolutely fantastic. The clear cloudless sky was just the perfect reason to get out of our stuffy apartment - so we made a simple picnic lunch of baguettes, mozzarella, tomato & pesto, packed a couple of containers for the berries and 2 hungry stomachs.

Just 30km from where we live, it already feels like the countryside. Acres upon acres of farmland. It was no different at the strawberry farm. Rows upon rows of strawberry shrubs - some were merely little ones which won't be fruiting until the end of summer but on the other side, were the fully matured shrubs where several people were grazing. Our empty containers were weighed and then we joined our fellow grazers on our allotted 2 rows of strawberry shrubs.

Here's the best part, there is no limitation on how much we picked..... and more importantly, ate! There was plenty of fully ripened strawberries to pick and I reckoned we must have ate as much as 50% of what was in our containers. (They ought to weigh us at the entrance as well) Gosh, was it cheap. 2kg of sweet, delicious strawberries for 8 euros. I would expect to pay more than 2.5 times that at the shops. It was no surprise then that many folks driving up to the farm brought along washing pails.

I promised DH a strawberry cheesecake (light, because we both have a tummy each :P ), froze some of them for the rest of year and made the rest into jam.

For those living in Greater Helsinki, here's the address & url of the farm. Tosi hyviä mansikoita!

Kartanon Marja
Kuninkaankartanontie 35, Espoo

ps. Contrary to the lyrics of 1 of Beatles' most famous songs, the strawberry fields are very real indeed.

M with strawberries growing out of her ears
36 weeks 4 days