Day trip: Strawberry Picking, Angel Oak, and Folly Beach

We are actually on Spring Break this week so we decided to head over to the Charleston area with some friends for a quick day trip. Last year we visited Ambrose Farms to pick organic strawberries. The Farm is beautiful and full of veggies so I was in heaven. We picked 14 pounds of berries in about 30 minutes. I made jam out of them today!

While driving to the farm last year we drove right by the Angel Oak Tree but didn't have time to stop. So this year we took a picnic and ate lunch by this massive 400-500 year old Live Oak tree. To give you an idea of its size, the tree's circumference is 25 feet and its area of shade is 17,000 sq. feet.

The girls were not happy that they were in the presence of the best climbing tree ever but not allowed to climb it.

They didn't stay sad long.

We spent the last few hours of the day at the beach. It was extremely windy and a bit chilly but the kids never seem to mind.

Greens and daisies

It's that time of year again. We are bringing in tons of greens. For example, today I went out at about 11:00 am and picked a handful of lettuce, baby bok choi, sweet peas, radishes, and green onions and mixed it all together for a salad.

We ordered a scale to keep track of the amount of veggies we bring in. We are keeping record of it all on a clip board for now but I plan on charting it as we get in more food. For the first week we brought in 11.5 oz of spinach, 26 oz of sweet peas, 9 radishes, 22 oz lettuce, 15 oz baby bok choi, 1.5 lbs of bigger bak choi, 1 lb young turnip greens. And our spinach is huge.

We loved looking at it so much we just had to take a picture! Is it because of the compost tea?

This is the bak choi bed. This is an asian green that we use just like the other greens--in stir fries, steamed or chopped really thin in salads. We like it because it is a more heat tolerant than salad greens and more tender than traditional southern greens.

Here's the lettuce bed.

So I also had a birthday last weekend--yes I am 32 years old now. Thanks to all my friends and family who contributed to a wonderful weekend. I took a road trip to Nashville to meet up with my best friends from Indy. We all have soar jaws from talking and laughing so much! I got home in perfect time to receive hugs and kisses from my wonderful family, lots of birthday cards and a package with a new zoom lens! I tested it out on the daisies that are blooming in the back garden. What do you think? The pictures really don't do justice to the beautiful flowers. I really do love having flowers all over the yard.