Looking through the local advertiser, I noticed an ad for picking blueberries. $8 a gallon if you picked your own, considerably lower than the grocery store, and it would allow us to freeze a bundle and have 'fresh' blueberries this winter when they are so hard to come by. And blueberry picking sounded like just the kind of adventure the kiddos were in need of.
Of course, we picked one of the hottest days of the year and we didn't get there until after noon. Where we were greeted by a lady with a golf cart saying, follow me. Hmmm...did you know that mini-vans can off road? Yup. Did you know that tall growing grass can hide a minor ditch in the beaten down grass that was leading a double life as a 'road'? Yeah, it can. Miraculously, I managed to not tear the bottom of the van out. When we finally parked safely in the midst of the blueberry patch, the three very large dogs that had followed us out there greeted us with all sorts of slobber, drool, and happily, wagging tails. All very endearing, really.
Except that my kids are pet.ri.fied. of dogs. However, the kind lady in the glof cart had no intentions of staying out in the heat with us, and she agreed to coax her dogs back to the Big House with her. Her farewell included instructions to just c'mon back to the house when we were done, and that the kids could eat as many as they wanted.
This worked out well for Elizabeth, who preferred to eat her berries straight off the bush rather than drop them in the bucket for this winter's pleasures. I don't even want to think about how many blueberries that kid put away in the two-ish hour span we were there. Suffice it to say, she was full when we left.
Thomas and Sarah Grace each took a bucket and set about picking blueberries, but Thomas soon found he would rather pick fifteen or twenty then dump them on the ground and start over. Agh! All those yummy blueberries tossed to the ground and we were after two gallons of berries! I did manage to convince him to dump them into my bucket or into Granny's bucket. Then he resorted to treasure finding, as little boys are prone to do.
Sarah Grace, well, let's just say she isn't the blueberry picking type. She spent her time trying to decide who was standing in a more shaded area, Mommy or Granny, and running back and forth between us asking if it was time to go yet. Incidentally, there are no pictures of her.
After about an hour and a half or more, the kids were all hot and whiny, I was hot and getting the all-my-children-are whining-at-my-feet-complex that Mommies everywhere are familiar with. We were still somewhere around half a gallon shy of our goal, but the time had come. We were disrupting the kids nap schedule. And did I mention it was hot? I gave the proclamation that it was time to go and the kids all but ran for the van.
We carefully picked our way back up the grass 'road' and handed the lady some cash for our stash of goodies and then brought the kids home. They had to have a quick rinse off before I would allow them to crawl into their beds, grubby little creatures! And then, they rested peacefully.
We now have a ton of yummy blueberries up in the freezer for some muffin making and smoothies this winter, the kids had their fill of fresh ones for a while, and life is good.
The End.
1 comment:
Sounds like FUN! I did not realize they were still 'in season.' I am glad you got plenty before they were 'gone' for the year.
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