Pick Your Own Lavender, The Yule Love it Lavender Farm

Today we spent thing morning at the VERY lovely Yule Love it Lavender Farm in Leonard, Michigan.  It is a wonderful place to visit.  We went there because my daughter loves to pick flowers and I thought it would be fun for her to go someplace where the entire purpose was to pick flowers.  I also happen to love lavender.  She had fun, but was probably a bit too young to pick lavender because we had to be specific about which stems we picked (they had to be flowering and we had to cut in between the first and second set of leaves), but we all still really enjoyed it because she could do other things like carry the stems we picked and put them into the basket.



After picking the lavender we sat down for some amazing lavender ice cream.  We each had a bowl and it was superb!  I am plan on trying to make some in the future.



Then the kids headed over to a little play area that was set up close to the pavilion that had a child-sized clothesline, a sandbox and a small tractor.  They had a blast "washing" and "drying" the handkerchiefs they had there and playing in the sand.





We didn't participate, but they also offer an afternoon tea that looked really nice, but I think we will save that activity for when my children are older and can appreciate it more.

Here are some additional pictures from our trip today:

Strawberry Picking at Rowe's Produce Farm

Yeah! June is here, and that means Strawberry Picking.  Today my mom and I went Strawberry picking at Rowe's Produce Farm in Ypsilanti , Michigan (we also picked some sugar snap peas that were amazingly good).    Thought I would share some pictures of the day with you, followed by a few pictures that show how I freeze them for use through the rest of the year. 


















Here is how I Prep the Strawberries for the Freezing.

1. Wash the strawberries
2. Hulled the by hand (didn't even need the OXO strawberry huller because they were easy to just twist off).
3. Placed them on a dishtowel that was on top of a cookie sheet, put another dishtowel on top of the strawberries.  
4. Place the cookie sheet in the freezer
5. Once they are frozen, put the strawberries in a plastic bag for use during the year.  

We had a great time.  When I was helping my daughter into bed tonight I said "I had fun with you today my little strawberry picker."  She replied, "Mama, I am not a strawberry picker, I am a strawberry eater." :-)