Strawberry Fields

Don and I were invited by a group of students to go strawberry picking yesterday. We jumped at the chance to spend a day in the country with them. Funny thing is that we never did this in Canada. We always thought that it was much easier to buy a basket from the roadside.

Great thing about doing anything with students here, they take care of all the details. They heard about this place on the news and thought that it would be a nice outing during this long weekend and it would be less crowded. They looked it up on the Internet and planned how we could get there. Since it would have taken us hours and 3 bus transfer to get out to the strawberry fields, they hired a couple of taxis and negotiated a price. We arrived comfortably in an hour.

Here's an aside. I think Chinese friendships are enviable. Often they make lifelong friendships early, maybe grade school even. School friends are very precious here and they actually keep in contact. The girls we hung out with yesterday are roommates. In university, roommates tend to spend a lot of time together and grow close. Guess if you have to go to ALL of your classes together for four years and you live together, you bond. We spent the day with Alice, Valeria, Addy, Martha and Christina. Unfortunately Sally had to work. Don taught these girls for a year and now I'm teaching them.

Back to our day, we were a bit nervous when we found out that they really didn't know exactly where we were heading. No matter, as long as the taxi driver knew, right? In the cab, we found out he also didn't quite know exactly where the strawberry fields were so he stopped periodically in the villages to ask the locals for directions. As we got closer, we saw the signs so we felt a bit more confident. A guy on a bike finally offered to bring us so we followed him.

When we got out of the taxi, we were greeted with the smell of manure. Ah, brings back memories of Barrhaven (we used to live in a suburb that enjoyed this smell regularly because of the farms nearby). We were led into a greenhouse (1 mud/brick wall enclosed with plastic in a curved shape). Inside, we found rows of strawberry plants. We found out from the farmer that the strawberries were not that big yet because this was a second crop. The first had been harvested during Spring Festival in January / February. We sampled a few anyway and found them sweet. Unfortunately, we had to leave because the girls suspected something was off and found out that this was not where they had intended to go. Apparently, the boy who led us there was trying to intercept unknowing visitors to get some business for these farmers because they were located far from the main area which was still half an hour's walk away. Thankfully, the taxi drivers had parked a little ways off to wait for us so we got back in and drove.

When we finally arrived, there were many similar greenhouses lined up along the road. We walked a bit to visit a few to find one where we wanted to pick. It was a nice warm day (around 20C) so the greenhouses were quite warm inside. We only lasted about half an hour in one building and only picked a small quantity. As we walked along to find another patch, we found a man who was selling strawberry at the side of the road. We decided that, since it was the same price anyway, that we would "pick" his strawberries instead of going inside another greenhouse. So we walked away from his stand with a box each with a lot less work.

After that we headed off to find something for lunch. There were, as far as we could tell, only two options. The first restaurant was unanimously pooh-poohed so we wandered around looking for the second. While we were wandering, we happened across an elderly lady sitting in her doorway. It was a moment begging to be captured. Don, through the girls, asked permission to take a photo of her. They had to yell cause she was hard of hearing, being 91 years old. He took a couple of spectacular images that will definitely grace our wall one day.

After that, we wandered a bit farther down the street and found the other restaurant. Even though the village was small, we still had to ask for directions from the locals. Sure, there was only one main road but there were a few side roads so directions were good. When we arrived at the restaurant, we gladly sat down and enjoyed a delicious lunch. After that, we called for the taxis to return for us. While we waited, we walked around a bit more.

Till then and quite surprisingly, Don did not generate as much interest as I would have guessed. He got a lot of attention during lunch from some little girls in the village but not much before that. However, during our walk after lunch, an older gentleman came walking towards him with an open note pad and asked for his autograph. (See pic below.) He told Don he was welcomed back to the village and even tried to invite us into his home for some water. We politely declined.

Then, a bit later, we were met by a woman who stopped Don to ask "How much?" and motioned towards his box of strawberries. Ha ha! That started a little negotiation and Don had to call on his knowledge of Mandarin numbers to manage. It was hilarious!

We arrived back at school late in the afternoon, exhausted but happy. We had had such a great day in the country with great company. We did have a daunting task ahead though because we had to eat all of the strawberries quickly as they were getting mushy. Guess being bounced around in those boxes all day in the sun is not the best way to transport them. I can imagine the smell of 6 boxes of strawberries in the girls' small dorm room last night and without a refrigerator!

We enjoyed French toast this morning with strawberries. Yum!

A few more of June's pics:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=73374&id=571108357&l=b6a0f1a3a1

Stay tuned for Don's!