Strawberry Fields Forever!

It is that time of year. Strawberries are in full swing followed by raspberries and then blueberries. Picking berries directly from the field is child's dream come true. However, don't expect your child to contribute to the picking bucket as most of them go directly into the mouth. This is the reason I stress the importance of picking in organic fields if at all possible. Strawberries in particular are one of the most heavily sprayed crops. There are as many as 60 know pesticides used on strawberries. Some people will have a bad reaction to strawberries and believe themselves allergic to strawberries when they may be in fact reacting to not the strawberry but what the berry has been sprayed with. These dangers can be avoided by buying organic berries. In the regular grocery store buying organic can be expensive but if you are willing to head to a u-pick field you can save some dollars and have some fun in the process.

If you live in the Portland area Sauvie Island is the place for berries. I recommend Bella Organic Farm with a great price of $1.38 a pound for u-pick organic strawberries.

Lyra getting her fill of dirt and strawberries

With about 15 pounds of strawberries we had company over for strawberry short cake, froze some berries and also canned some strawberry preserves. If you have a dehydrator dried berries and fruit leather are also great options as well.

Strawberry preserve all ready for winter pancakes!

Cloth Diaper Solution for Night Time

If your baby is a heavy wetter at night time it can be difficult to find a cloth diaper that won't leak. Many mom's have turned to pocket diapers where you can stuff them with as many cloth inserts as you can fit. This is what we had resorted to. Our daughter's diapers were getting so big at night it was a wonder she could roll over! After some research I decided to try Kickernappies Super-Do Diaper Inserts, which I purchased from Simple Wonders. These inserts are made with 6 layers of hemp terry and 2 layers of ultra-thirsty microfiber. Hemp is one of the most absorbent diaper materials currently on the market, beating out microfiber and bamboo.  After one month of using the Super-Do we have had only one night of leaks and that was most likely a daddy diaper snap on error.

 On the left is the Kickernappies Super-Do and the right is what we were using: a Softbum super insert and two charcoal inserts all made from microfiber.  

I have been very pleased with the performance of the Super-Do. My only complaint would be the price. They are $12.95 an insert retail which is expensive in the cloth insert world. However, since they are only being used at night you don't need very many. I currently have four Super-Do's and could probably get by with three. If you are running out of room in your night time pocket diaper look into trying out a hemp insert. There are many other hemp inserts on the market today, such as, Happy Heinys Hemp Stuffins and Rumparooz hemp 6hr soaker.