When my family moved to The Garden of the Goats, we had no idea there was a blueberry farm nearby. Thankfully one of my neighbors, who is a great friend, told me about it and asked if the kids and I would like to go. Um, YES! Unfortunately, the first date we picked was a wash out. It stormed. It was not just a light shower that would quickly pass. No, it was thunder, lightening and wind. The kind your feet would turn into mud blocks if you walked across the yard when the rain stopped.
I didn't know how long the season at the farm lasted, and I had kind of forgotten about it until my friend asked me yesterday if we'd like to go this morning. It's the last day for picking. I said yes again! My kids are lolly gaggers. They can make a 10 minute chore last two hours. (True story. I've been timing them. ) I knew we wouldn't be ready to go at the crack of dawn because chores had to be done. So I said we'd be ready by 10:00. (Plenty of time for breakfast, getting ready, and lolly gagging.) But I told the kids what was on the agenda, and low and behold, we were out the door by 9:00! We picked up my friend and headed out.
My kids have picked black raspberries from our fence line, and wild blackberries from our brushy woods. But we've never been given buckets and row after row of berries to pick an abundant amount of fruit before today. We all were a bit giddy. Except the youngest. She picked about five berries and was done. She wanted to hang out with the owner on her porch. Tough toenails, Tootsie. I forced her to stay with our bunch and have fun! She didn't pick any more for a bucket, but she did eat her weight in the rest she picked!
(I'm so sorry, I'm on my phone posting, and the pictures in my gallery are up and down, but when inserting them here they are sideways. I can't figure out how to change them. If you could clue me in on it, I'd be eternally grateful! )
Even though it was fairly early when we went, the heat quickly increased. We were sweating quite a bit as the temperature hit 89 F, but it was still very pleasant.
We decided it was time to call it a day after my girls got 3-4 bug stings each. It's not fun when the kids are crying.
One of the nice qualities of this pick it yourself farm is the price. They charge $3 USD per pound of blueberries! That's a much better price than we can get at the store. Nice memories are made when you spend a morning working together to gather berries. When we're eating blueberry oatmeal, muffins, or scones this winter, our thoughts will go back to this day. We ended up with a little over 10 pints when all was said and done. That worked out to around $24.00, but because it was the last day for picking and there weren't a lot of pickers around, I was only charged $20.00. How nice! I do believe we'll keep an ear out for blueberry season next summer. I'm grateful to my friend for making sure we got this experience.
Note: The blueberry rows and bushes are covered by netting to keep the birds from getting the berries. The farm said this is the first year for the netting, but it's served its purpose nicely.
