Strawberry Picking and Tart Making

This month, OSC's event was a strawberry picking adventure followed by making the strawberries into tarts. I had reluctantly neglected to sign up for two reasons: 1) I wasn't really sure I'd be able to go because I'm into "any day now" time with the baby. 2) Even if I could go, I wasn't sure I'd be able to pick strawberries due to the squatting and getting back up repeatedly. My center of balance is not exactly perfect these days. Considering the fact that there were limited spaces available, I thought it in everyone's best interest that I let someone else go.
But then, the day before the trip, our lovely coordinator e-mailed out that there was still one spot left. I called her and told her that if no one else wanted it, I was in. She called back later that night and told me to come along. I was very happy because I LOVE Japanese strawberries. I mean, American ones are good, but Japanese strawberries are waaaaay better.
So the morning of the event came, and it was cold and threatening rain. I was reminded of my very first OSC event, two years ago, for which we went tomato picking on a cold, rainy day in March. At that event, the tomatoes turned out to be in greenhouses. This event turned out to be similar:

So I didn't even have to lean over to get to the strawberries. They were right there at chest level! It was very nice. We were instructed to pick 15 berries for our tarts, and any more than that we would have to pay for. I picked extra for myself. They're too good to pass up. When everyone had their berries, we were led into a little room to make our tarts. The base/cake bit was already made, so there were three basic steps. 1) whip the cream:

2: Make mochi, form it into little pillows for the strawberries to sit on. Mochi, as I've mentioned before, is sticky rice paste. This stuff had sugar mixed in, I'm sure, and it was quite akward to work with. It came to us in powdered form. We added water and heated and stired until it was much like glue. We coated our hands in what felt like corn starch to mold it into the little round shapes to put under the strawberries.

3: Assemble. We spread what I assumed was butter on the tart base, put the mochi on top of that, arranged our strawberries on the mochi, then put whipped cream around the strawberries. Finally, there was powdered sugar to sprinkle over the top. Here's what mine looked like.

After we made our tarts, there was a little shop in which we could purchase more fresh produce, but the prices were equivalent to what I get at my place on my block, so I didn't buy anything else. Then we had an indoor picnic lunch (since it started raining outside) and headed back to Sasebo. All in all, it was a very fun trip, and I'm glad I had a chance to go.
I have been eating on my tart a little bit each day since then and it is quite good. I haven't delved into the plain strawberries yet, but they call to me from the fridge. I predict that the first time I take them out I will eat them all. Yum!