It’s Berry Time!!

A lot of people still have the belief that big businesses, manufacturers and governments will be the organizations that will stop pollution and protect our environments. Because of this belief these people continue to live their lives as they always have… not realizing the impact that simple, everyday decisions can make – like picking your own strawberries!


By spending one single hour in a local farmers field you can pick enough strawberries for your entire family for an entire year… unless you have plans to make your own jams, in which case you’ll need to spend two hours in the field. By doing this you will have no need to buy any strawberries imported from Mexico or California during the winter months. This means that you are not supporting the creation of plastic boxes needed to pack the berries, tonnes of carbon dioxide are not added to our atmosphere as fewer transport trucks are needed to import the berries, etc., etc.

Buy local! Buy in season! Spend time now to save for the future!


And you get a free tractor ride to the picking area! :)


Flash freezing is a term that I learned about many years ago. First – wash all the berries and pull the green stems from the middle. Next – place the berries onto cookie sheets and then put them into the freezer for an hour.


Once the berries are frozen, you can put them into freezer bags or reusable yogurt or margarine containers and that’s it! Simple eh!! Now you’ll have berries to enjoy all winter long in your pancakes, loaves, muffins and pies.

If you were to clean the berries and then put them immediately into freezer bags and then into your freezer you will find that all the berries will freeze together into one big clump. Flash freezing the berries ensures that each berry is frozen individually and when they are put into storage containers they won’t become a solid mass.

On our way home from the strawberry farm, Joanne and I made another stop at a roadside vegetable stand – another way of supporting local farmers and cutting down on the fossil fuels needed by big trucks to import veggies from far off places. The other benefits of this is a financial savings. The farmer had some ‘day-old’ baskets filled with peppers and tomatoes and we bought one of each for $1.00 a basket.

So… simple actions CAN save our environment. Joanne and I spent a total of $25.00 for the freshest of fruits and vegetable. We saved around $15.00 by getting some exercise and enjoying the sunshine. We didn’t create the need to burn fossil fuels. We supported a localized economy thus making this world a better place for future generations!!!

And we had fun doing it!!!!

Jim