Blueberry Picking July 12, 2008
Posted by Laura in Family, Farm.trackback
Bright and early this morning, we got up and headed out to pick another of the treats of summer- blueberries! We donned our bug spray and sunscreen and tried to get a jump on the heat and the late sleeping you-pickers that would come later. We went with some friends and had a great time despite the humidity and the 94 degree temp. (When I put it that way, it really makes you wish you were third trimester pregnant and standing up for hours outside in the heat, huh? But really, it was mostly shady, there was a nice breeze often, and the company was great. We’d like to do it again.)
Benjamin got up under the bushes to find the ones missed by others.
Rachel was ambitious and selective about which ones she picked.
Lydia went for the “low hanging fruit,” but mostly ended up with green berries in her mouth and nothing in her bucket.
She was happy to share my bucket, though. She mixed the berries around, squashed them, compared them to everyone else’s, dumped them on the ground, picked some of them up, and ran off with the bucket. What fun!
Here is one of the baskets we came home with today, proudly held by a kid that can single-handedly put away pounds of fruit in a sitting.
The blueberries are going to be eaten fresh, frozen, made into jam, and possibly syrup. We didn’t leave many ripe ones for the folks that came later., but there were plenty of pink ones enticing us to return. We are thinking about going back next week to get another batch so we’ll have enough preserved to give as gifts, too.
This reminds me of a book we had when we were kids. I guess you didn’t encounter a cute baby bear who was also “picking” blueberries and then also meet his mommy.
I’m glad Lyddie was old enough to enjoy this, too.
Save some blueberry syrup for me…
Sheryl,
Are you thinking of Blueberries for Sal? I should have read that to them before we went!
No, we didn’t encounter any bears. As a matter of fact, I was amazed there didn’t seem to be any birds robbing the bushes even.
Chris,
I’ve got a pint of blueberry syrup with your name on it!
M-m-m-m, blueberries! I need to find some place around here to pick some. Those look delicious. As for me, I just put up (actually froze) another peck of peaches last night.
The hard part of canning is that your goodies are so delicious that you want to eat some right away. But it just doesn’t seem right after working so hard to can them.
Dreamer,
Oh, I agree. I always try to leave some for fresh eating so there isn’t a riot, but every once in a while, a full recipe uses everything you’ve got.
Our friends found some peaches and got us 2 pecks of those. I just finished canning them last night with one bowl to eat in the fridge since they were very ripe. I’d like to get more since we really love peaches. We’d eat at least a quart a week if we had them. Two pecks made about 7 quarts for us so we’ll have to ration them out or find some more. I can’t wait for our trees to start bearing, but that will be several years off probably. Our blueberries and cranberries are probably a few years from having a substantial harvest too. Patience, patience!