Filling Buckets
Posted by Arwen Mosher in Food on Tuesday, August 03, 2010 4:19 PM
We go apple-picking in the fall, and when I was a kid my family went cherry-picking every summer as well.
But I’d never been blueberry picking before, until last week.
Blueberries for Sal was one of my favorite books at a little girl. Do you know it? Little Sal and her mother go blueberry picking on a hill in rural Maine, and get “all mixed up” with a mother bear and her cub. It all ends well, of course, but I think that many childhood readings of this book made me think that blueberry picking was too close to nature for me. Wild animals are fine in picture books, but I don’t like encountering them in real life!
Isn’t it funny how childhood impressions can stick around? When another mother from our parish emailed an invitation for us to bring our kids blueberry picking with hers, I immediately imagined tramping through the woods, out in the middle of nowhere. Then I clicked the link in her email.
It turns out there are such things as blueberry farms! Who would have thought?
This particular farm had berries at a very reasonable price, better than we can get at the grocery store even on sale. And the idea of picking them ourselves appealed to me, so on Thursday morning we packed up and went.
We had three adults and four children - my sister Branwen and her kids, my kids, our 19-year-old sister Tirienne, and me. Daniel, aged 4, and Camilla, aged 3.5, were moderately helpful with the picking. Matthew, aged 2, tried hard and only dumped the bucket once.
Blaise, at 18 months, was - frankly - a huge hindrance, and I was kicking myself for not thinking to bring the frame backpack carrier. I picked berries with one hand and held him on my other hip until my back and neck ached so badly that I thought fondly of the neat plastic boxes of blueberries in the grocery store’s produce section. Who cares if they cost 30% more per pound? They’re so easy!
Then, after about 45 minutes, Branwen had a brilliant idea. She took all four children back to her van to play and have snacks while Tirienne and I spent half an hour loading our buckets as quickly as we could. It turns out that without 28 pounds of toddler on your hip, picking blueberries is rewarding and actually kind of fun. I stopped entertaining fantasies about the grocery store’s plastic boxes.
We ended up with 13.5 pounds of blueberries, and it turns out that they’re much tastier than the ones from the grocery store! Most of them are in the freezer now, but I am fully addicted to eating them raw. So delicious! And we’re having some excellent blueberry baked goods ‘round these parts.
If you get the chance to go blueberry picking (and will be able to do it without a toddler on your hip) I highly recommend it!
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