When Blue Lake farm, ' Albohayra Alzarqa' announced on instagram about strawberry picking on Friday at their farm, I was so excited. This was something I was looking forward to for a long time. Blue Lake farm is in Abdally, close to Iraqi border.
At around 1pm, the doors to the strawberry green house opened. It wasn't surprising see a big crowd for strawberry picking. We were given a plastic box and a scissor for collecting strawberries off the stems. There were rows and rows of numerous strawberries both ripe luscious juicy red ones and raw green ones. Now for the exciting part...I went around the huge green house, passing by every row of beautiful strawberries waiting to be picked. I gently snipped the stem and collected big red strawberries of my very own choice. Besides, I cherished every moment of capturing the strawberry plants on camera. I got the box weighed and they charged me KD 1.500.
Every supermarket has plenty of packaged strawberries all through the year both local and imported. But the joy of seeing hundreds of beautiful ripe strawberries hanging from green stems that emerge from the living soil with beautiful leaves and little white flowers in a farm green house is a delightful sight; and also the experience of picking your own strawberries is something you certainly can't experience in supermarkets.
Strawberry picking would continue every Friday, 1 pm to 1.3O pm till end of March 2O16. Although the strawberry picking is only for half an hour, you can stay for much longer time, exploring the farm which is open from 12.45 pm to 6pm on Fridays. On Saturdays, they are open from 9 am to 6 pm. You can enjoy a cup of herb infused Nabta tea, purchase fresh produce, have freshly boiled corn on the cob, at their shop, walk around, enjoy the other green houses, the family picnic area and children's play area and of course the mini zoo. Feed the llamas and goats. There are restrooms as well. The long drive and visiting the farm is worth it considering the joy of the experience. You could carry food and water for you to have at the farm. A short drive from the farm, is a supermarket with a small restaurant next to it.
As soon as we got home, I washed the strawberries and relished every bite. They were quite sweet and the most amazing strawberries we had.
Strawberry picking tips:
1. Color or flavor of strawberries will not change after picking.
2. Leave the green stem on the strawberry for maximum shelf life.
3. Pick firm red strawberries. Before picking look around the whole berry for any spoilage.
3. Refrigerate your strawberries as soon as possible.
1. Color or flavor of strawberries will not change after picking.
2. Leave the green stem on the strawberry for maximum shelf life.
3. Pick firm red strawberries. Before picking look around the whole berry for any spoilage.
3. Refrigerate your strawberries as soon as possible.
4. Wash your strawberries just before eating.
5. You can freeze extra strawberries if you wish in a zip lock bag - without air.
There are a lot of interesting things at the farm. You can read more about Blue Lake farm in my previous post Here
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