Strawberries at Polkadraai for Christmas

October to December is strawberry season in the Western Cape – and the time when Polkadraai Farm outside Stellenbosch invites visitors to come and pick their own strawbs. We’ve visited them several times over the last years (have a look here), each time coming home with a delicious cache of fresh berries. We always pick more than we need, so that we can give them away to friends and neighbours too, as they make a wonderful Christmas present.

The owners have changed their system this year. In the past, we were given large flat-ish bowls to fill up, and then we’d weigh them inside the shop afterwards. This time, we had to choose the size of our containers, depending on how many berries we intended to pick, and pay for them upfront. This was a bit confusing. But perhaps too many people didn’t pay at the end? Also, the new ‘bowls’ were basically pot-plant containers, which were awkward to carry. It also meant that the berries were all lying ontop of each other in a big pile – which made it more likely that the bottom ones would be squashed. So I don’t like the new system much.

This time around, we were joined by Flat Kathy (who is back in town), as well as our friends L and V, and Little N, who was picking her own strawbs for the very first time. Little N is not quite four, so she still needs a bit of help, but she very proudly showed us her biiiiiig stash of berries at the end. After stowing them away in various tupperware containers inside a big cooler box, we decided to reward ourselves with some ice coffees, cappucinos, tea and waffles with ice-cream. Yummm.

A fabulous fun outing for family and friends!