I can't go strawberry picking because I am too short!?

A close friend told me a story that one of his room mates during college didn't want to go strawberry picking with him because he was too short. What???? How could anyone be shorter than a strawberry plant .. okay maybe in Japan where the strawberries are planted on a 1-meter high counter / table. Anyway, if anyone want to give excuse not to go strawberry picking, please do not use the excuse that he / she is not tall enough. As for me, I don't need excuses - I love picking and eating fresh strawberries from the farm early in the day.

Here in Austria, strawberry picking season normally begins in May and ends at the end of June. This summer the weather has been quiet cold and the picking season just recently begun. So my family and I decided to go strawberry picking on a lovely Sunday morning. It is good to go early in the morning because you get to pick big sweet juicy strawberries because most people tend to do that and if you come late morning or afternoon, you are left with the small ones. Since kiasu is my middle name, I would not even consider eating small strawberries when I know the big juicy ones are simply heavenly to eat.

Here are some tips on how to pick strawberries according to Pickyourown.org:-

1. Grasp the stem just above the berry between the forefinger and the thumbnail and pull with a slight twisting motion. Pick only the berries that are fully red. Part the leaves with your hands to look for hidden berries ready for harvest.
2. With the stem broken about 1.5 cm from the berry, allow it to roll into the palm of your hand.
3. Repeat these operations using both hands until each holds 3 or 4 berries. If you got small hands like mine or if the strawberries are huge just like the way I like them, then 2 berries in each hand would do fine.
4. Carefully place - don't throw - the fruit into your containers. Repeat the picking process with both hands. I follow the Pareto principle, 80 % of the effort used to pick the strawberries is being fueled by 20% of the strawberries eaten from the container. He he!
5. Don't overfill your containers or try to pack the berries down. Avoid placing the picked berries in the sunshine any longer than necessary. It is better to put them in the shade of a tree or shed than in the car trunk or on the car seat. Cool them as soon as possible after picking. Strawberries may be kept fresh in the refrigerator for two or three, depending upon the initial quality of the berry. After a few days in storage, however, the fruit loses its bright color and fresh flavor and tends to shrivel.

Anyway, I have no idea why I wrote this piece. I actually wanted to write about the recent fuel price increase and its non-relation to PETRONAS. However, every time I do a research on it, I find too many idiotic comments by the Malaysian public on how to tackle the recent fuel price hike in Malaysia with PETRONAS in the equation. Strawberries are so much easier to digest.