We’ve belonged to the CSA program (community supported agriculture) that South Coast Farms in San Juan Capistrano runs for almost five years now. Every other week we get a giant basket of yummy fruits and veggies, largely picked straight from the farm that day.

In late spring the baskets are even better than usual thanks to fresh strawberries. If I happen to pick up the basket on my way home from work, I generally have a hard time not eating all of the strawberries on the drive home. (I place strawberries right behind butter and bacon in my list of top foods.)

We were super excited, of course, when South Coast Farms ran a $1 per pound promotion on “you pick” strawberries at the end of the season last year. We piled the whole family in the car and picked to our hearts’ content! After a few hours we returned home with bellies full of strawberries and just over 10 pounds of berries. A double batch of delicious strawberry pineapple jam was in our future…