And picked it!
With the rains threatening, we got to the farm and began picking the berries, even with a few slivers of sunshine breaking through the gathering clouds. I of course started with a raspberry breakfast and must have eaten at least two containers of them or more by the time we were done, but that is part of the fun. You pay a "picking fee" which covers what is eaten also, before weighing the final results.
Final Tally:
7.1 kilos (~16lb)
Not including the contents of our stomachs.
It is a really pretty view from this farm, as it over looks a lake filled with little islands and hills in the distance, as well as having plenty of strips of flowers planted throughout the fields to maximise the bee population to pollinate the berries.
We were a bit earlier than we normally go, so there was a lot of unripe berries still, but since they ripen in stages, there were still plenty for us to pick and it took us about an hour to gather what we got, with the final price being around 78€ - which at 32€ a kilo in the shop, would have cost us about 227€ this year. The prices are higher than other years, because they have rejected 90% of the visa applications for foreign berry pickers, and Finns won't do it as a job.
A lot of berries are going to rot in the forests.
They also have a store there to buy berries, as well as cakes and other local products, but we only dug into some ice cream, which was pretty awesome and the serving size generous. Though, on a full raspberry belly, cramming in what my wife and daughter couldn't eat was a task - but I managed.
We would also normally get strawberries from the same place, but we haven't picked them the last couple years, opting to buy them from the famer stalls instead, We don't eat as many and we bought 5 kilos for the freezer the other day.
And these young sheep were pretty funny, bleating together and prancing about while they were eating, gave Smallsteps some giggles. The carer came to feed them something more and they went crazy screaming, and she said every time she goes near them they do this, like they haven't eaten in a week.
And my wife liked this little van, as well as some of the other farm cars. she hasn't been around farms much, but they tend to use a lot of old stuff until it is unusable, so seeing an older man drive around on a peewee 50 made her laugh.
And while we ate our ice cream after picking, we saw the rain coming ever-closer, but it didn't rain on us. In fact, it didn't rain on us until we got home a half hour later, *and now it is absolutely pouring down. Smallsteps went on her bike to visit a friend and must have got drenched.
Summer dries.
But at least we got our berry pilgrimage in for another year and can now enjoy raspberries fresh for a few days, and then frozen through the autumn and winter. We also dropped a couple boxes over to our elderly neighbours, as is our tradition each year when we get stuff, because they can no longer do it themselves. They really enjoy it, and we will likely get a few tomatoes in trade once they are ripe in a few weeks.
Not a bad morning's work all up.
Taraz
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