Mississippi Mondays: Joe's Blueberries

Every time we move one of the first things I do is look up you-pick farms.  Here the primary you-pick crop is blueberries.  Yum.  We got here too late last year, but I got on the e-mail list and as soon as they ripened we headed out.  There is nothing like fresh produce to help me hop right out of bed and give me the energy to drag my kids out of bed as well.  I wanted to get there right when they opened to beat the heat of the day.  Even though we took a beautiful detour (i.e. missed our turn) on a country road, when we got there, there was still dew on the berries.

At first I wasn't sure I made the right choice in where to go to pick blueberries.  We went a little further than last time, but to a place that doesn't use pesticides on the berries.  There were about 28 bushes (as compared to almost 500 at the last place we went) but it proved to be plenty and only $6 a gallon.

 

And they are off.  Here are our pickers, from youngest to oldest.

Little Miss Blue.  

She picked the whole way through.  

Though some were red or even green.  

She carefully picked those bushes clean.

She enjoyed picking berries

And was really quite merry

Though when the camera she saw

She gave a guffaw

So you'll not see her merry with berry.

 This little sweet girl's like a fairy

Getting berry after berry after berry

She is so sweet having her around is a treat

A treat that even blueberries can't beat

This is a team we can't separate

Nor can we recover the berries that they ate

They also filled up their pail

And did it so well

We couldn't hep but say "You did Grrreat"

Christopher would only pick the perfect berry

Which made his bucket very easy to carry

The berries were beatiful

His bucket was not at all full

But still he found berry picking quite merry

As a picker he was far from the worst

He just had to get exercise first

He though he was fast

But the dog wasn't last

Then he picked berries as one who was cursed

These two are two of a kind

And picking they were hard to find

They were still very slim

Bucket filled to the brim

And never once had they whined.

There had been a thunderstorm the night before and lots of beautiful ripe berries were on the ground.  I think that is why it took us longer than last time to fill our buckets. When we were done we had 3 gallons of beautiful blueberries.  While we were paying Magnus and Kate made some blueberry treats.  I think Chris invented the kabab.

A blue berry taco

Blueberry  kabab

Blueberry Ice Cream Cone

 Then Magnus and Kate did their favorite thing.

They climbed a tree.  I think they could spend half their lives in a tree.

Joe (of Joe's blueberries) was above and beyond nice. He brought the kids drinks from his house, and even gave us some berries he had picked.  We had to take a picture with him.  And that was our day of blueberry picking. In the end we went home with 5 gallons of blueberries.  Tomorrow I'll show you what I did with them. But I do have to post this picture before I go.  Isn't she sweet.