Some of my fondest memories of childhood are the yearly outings we made out to harvest fruit. We used to do it all: strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, apples…you name it, we picked it. My grandfather would take me cherry-picking when I’d go visit him in Ontario. Family traditions are something I hold dear to my heart. I knew when I had kids that I wanted to keep my favorite ones alive and start our own. Spending a day at the strawberry patch is one of those traditions I definitely wanted to keep.
As young adults, my husband and I always kind of bounced around from sugar shack to sugar shack, the same went for berry fields. The only constant I’d kept, was the apple orchard in Rougemont I’d been going to since I was a little girl. To this day, I still love it. But one year, after the little orchard shop caught on fire, they closed for the rest of the season. We hadn’t gotten a chance to go before. We found ourselves having to try out a new orchard.
Denis Charbonneau Orchard.
Rougemont is the apple city of Montreal, there’s an orchard at every corner. However, I had seen one of my husband’s cousin post about this orchard in St-Gregoire. And a few years ago when we were a family of 4, headed out one fall afternoon to check it out. I’m so hard-headed and stuck in my ways, that I refused to give it a chance at first. I complained that “MY” orchard was better for X and Y reasons.
But as the day went on and we explored more…I fell in love! In the middle of the orchard, we found this little house where they make the most delicious apple cider doughnuts! Not only was this an apple orchard, but they also had a pumpkin patch! The kids went nuts, picking out their own little pumpkins was a treat. And on the way to the pumpkin patch, we passed a raspberry field, strawberry, and blueberry patches. To top it all off, as we took a ride in the tractor, I realized they also had a sugar shack! I was sold! This was our new orchard. It had everything I needed to create beautiful traditions for my family. Leaving that day, I knew we’d be back next summer to spend a day at the strawberry patch.
The Sugar Shack.
Spring came along before summer, and we made the trip to the Denis Charbonneau Sugar Shack. Now, we’ve been to some huge commercialized shacks that are cold and not very inviting. This one had the most beautiful, rustic, and charming restaurant ever. There were wooden beams throughout the whole place. They had the whole traditional Quebec sugar shack meal and of course, delicious maple taffy out in the snow. If it’s not too chilly, you can take a tractor ride through the maple and apple orchard. It’s so beautiful all covered in snow. As an adult, I’ve grown not to be a crazy fan of winter, but feel so fortunate to live somewhere where there is maple all around.
The Strawberry Patch.
As the days got warmer, and June approached, I couldn’t wait to go spend a day at the strawberry patch! Nothing tastes more delicious than fresh juicy berries picked from a field. Watching my little ones run around through the endless rows of strawberries was magical. We walked to the pumpkin patch to see the tiny fruit start to grow, as well as all the little apples on the trees. Watching fruits and veggies grown is one of my favorite summer activities lol. That’s why I love gardening so much.
So ever since then, the Denis Charbonneau Orchard has been our traditional spot for all things fruit harvesting and sugar-related. I couldn’t wait to go this year with my four kids in tow and a walking baby! I knew that Sofia would love it! And she did, they all did. We tried to head out not too late to beat the July heat. We went a little late this year, but there were still plenty of juicy strawberries to pick. We’d had a lot of rain in my opinion, so I thought surely they would taste watery. Surprisingly I was wrong, they were so sweet!
If you have small children, I definitely recommend bringing a wagon with you. Whether it’s to lug around the little ones when their feet hurt, or the fruit (bags full of apples and pumpkins are heavy to carry around) it’s something great to have. We have this foldable one, it has a canopy you can attach to add shade on those sunny days. The baby loved riding in it with daddy, while we finished filling our baskets. We then headed to the cute little shop where they sell all kinds of products they make with what they harvest. You can find all sorts of pies, maple products galore, and farm-fresh eggs, it’s a gem! Of course, the kids wanted to check out the farm animals. They loved feeding the goats some carrots and watching the beautiful peacocks open up their tails.
What do we do with all those berries? Make all the strawberry things we can think of!!! Of course, I freeze some, but most of them we’ll eat just like that or bake something with them. Some of our favorites are making strawberry shortcakes, strawberry milkshake popsicles, strawberry lemonade, crepes, tarts, this strawberry salad…the list goes on! The same goes for all the fruit we harvest. As you can tell by now, I’m big on sweets!
In conclusion, spending a day at the strawberry patch has definitely been the highlight of my summer so far. I can’t wait for all the other summer memories we will make this year. Above all, I can’t wait till we head back next year with Sofia being a little older, and maybe not making strawberry jam out in the field. Thank you for stopping by today. Make sure to check out our favorite strawberry recipes here!
Elisa
