Berry Picking

It took us an hour and a half to get there but it was totally worth it. The large farm in Virginia where you pick your own berries was so much fun! David, Linsay, Ethan and I met up with Heather and James (friends of David and Linsay) and their kids and as soon as the kids were out of the car the berrymania started.

Although it was blazing hot the kids immediately began to run through the bushes pulling off anything low enough for them to reach. We had to explain to them that red blackberries are not ripe and shouldn't be picked so only to grab the black ones. Also, raspberries should be red not white. :) They were so adorable running around the shore trying to swat at bugs and sneaking berries out of the buckets. I first noticed something strange about 30 minutes into the trip. No matter how many berries I put into the bucket, it always stayed empty. The red stain around Ethan's mouth was all the evidence I needed. We explained to him that we were only there to pick berries and we could eat them later and after that he only snitched a few. I always new when he had gotten a berry because he would shout out his favorite word. "YUMMO!" Ethan followed along behind holding the bucket for the adults to put the berries in saying, "Bee!" everytime we passed a flower. They have mutant bees the size of quarters swarming the bushes but of course they're just after pollin so we left each other alone.

We spent several hours in the sun picking berries and making sure the kids didn't fall in the water or get stung by bees. I've never been to such a beautiful farm before and although it would be desperately hard work I've always wanted to live on a farm. Being among the berry bushes just set that idea into cement. After we were exhausted from chasing around and the heat we ended up with about 2 lbs of raspberries and the same amount of blackberries. I slept in the car almost the whole way home.

Now I have homemade jam and ice cream to look forward to before I head home to Utah.