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Celebrating the Strawberry
The berry's the thing at Great Country Farms in Bluemont: The strawberries do not get much fresher than they will this Memorial Day weekend when Great Country Farms inaugurates the picking season with its Strawberry Jubilee.
Unlike the fields of John Lennon where nothing was real and strawberries were forever, these strawberries are very real, indeed, and they are gone very quickly.
“The most important thing is that Memorial Day weekend is the first week, usually, that we start picking strawberries,” Kate DDE_LINKZurschmeide DDE_LINK said. “If people want to pick them, they need to be there by 9 a.m. We usually close the field between 10:30 and 11. But they can always check the Web site.”
Closing the fields keeps them from being picked clean the first day. Zurschmeide knows how much people love their berries. She and her husband, Mark, are in the 15th year of running their Great Country Farms on Foggy Bottom Road in Bluemont. It will also be the 15th year, Zurschmeide said, for the strawberries.
Zurschmeide said the first variety to appear will be the Early Glos, followed by Dar Select a couple of weeks later and the Chandler in June.
Zurschmeide reports that about 600 people show up to pick strawberries alone, while many others arrive to hear the music or check out the animals or buy the food.
One of the biggest attractions comes in tiny packages.
“One of the most fun things we do is the Diaper Derby,” Zurschmeide said. “The parents will say [their babies] are the best crawlers in the world but then [the babies] look at the crowd and start waving. ... We have prizes for all the little ones. It's almost as funny to watch the parents coach their children along as it is to watch the babies.”
The event is sponsored by Petite Dekor, of Leesburg.
Yet another competition is the Ducky Derby, in which children have to pump the water that gets their ducks to the finish line.
One can also opt to take part in the Tart Toss (strawberries and whipped cream thrown as far as possible) and the pie-eating contest.
Those who conquer the farm's five mazes will become Maze Masters and will receive a prize.
The play area includes rope swings, a tractor-tire mountain, pedal tractors and 60-foot slides.
The stocked pond will be open for catch-and-release fishing.
The Roosteraute will be serving up barbecue and kettle corn all weekend long. There will also be hot dogs and hamburgers.
Special treats include Grandma Z's strawberry shortcake, chocolate-dipped strawberries and strawberry rhubarb pie available for purchase.
Hayrides run regularly to the U-Pick strawberry fields.
Everything is included in the admission prices except the food and the cow train rides ($2).
The jubilee, however, is just the beginning.
“I guess the most important thing is that the Strawberry Jubilee really kicks off our strawberry season,” Zurshmeide said, “and we should be picking for about three weeks.”
Contact the writer at ecarlton@timespapers.com.
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