Tuesday, July 22, 2008

a berry picking day

The thing I love most about where we live is how close we are to both the city and the country. In 5 minutes we can drive from suburbia to farmland. This opens up so many possibilities when it comes to u-pick farms. You can find berries in summer, apples and pumpkins in fall and chop-your-own Christmas trees in winter. Seeing as berry season is in full swing, we took advantage of picking our own at the Berry Barn. It is the cutest little farm/store/soda-shop/deli you've ever seen. Plus, they don't spray their berries with pesticides so you can feel perfectly good about eating them straight from the bush (which we did a lot of that day). This is going to become a new summer tradition for us and I hope to have a freezer full of berries and homemade berry-based goodness by the end of the season. We mostly picked raspberries but I couldn't pass up buying a pint of already picked blueberries as we left. I ate quite a few of these in the car on the way home but still had enough left over to make these blueberry apple bars from my favorite farm-girl Susan's blog. I also have plans to make these with the raspberries. Yummy!

The kids had fun, too. Lucy was content in the stroller with Maryn plucking raspberries and feeding them to her. Lucy LOVES berries and Maryn hates to eat them but has great fun finding and picking them. It's a great partenrship!

As usual I took hundred's of photos of a mundane event. Feel free to skip these :)



Lucy loves to play in (and eat) the dirt. Luckily she found some raspberries to put in her mouth instead.

They have these little red wagons you can use to haul your berries. Maryn had the best time playing with them. Too bad we don't have room for one at home - it would keep her entertained all day!

Blueberries at the store. I couldn't pass these up!

Beautiful oilcoth. I wish I had a reason to buy some - I just love these bright colors.

My dirt-covered girl observing the chickens

Maryn enjoyed her chocolate milkshake on the ride home

5 comments:

Carol said...

You can't post too many pictures. I loved them. When I come we will have to go berry picking. I will buy some oil cloth for my patio table. You are so good at taking the girls out for adventures. Go Jess!

Bonnie Janelle said...

Aww....so much fun! You in sorta-Portland and my friend living in the forests of sorta-Seattle make me twinge with a little bit of jealousy I must say. Sounds like a ton of fun and so beautiful. More pictures! Always more pictures =)

erin said...

hi jess! your kids are STUNNINGLY beautiful! i love reading your blog too! glad that lucy is doing well after her surgeries. send me her measurements (thigh, waist, rise & hipbone to hipbone with a diaper on) and i will make you a couple of covers for free since i need the practice. (i am hoping to get good enough to sell them on etsy). if you want of course! my email is crazymaizy@comcast.net

Drew & Erica said...

Ooh, it seems like the area you live in offers so much. Andrew's dad grows oodles of raspberries, so when we were visiting last weekend, I kept finding myself wandering over to the raspberry patch and snacking. I love the 'dirt' pics. Glad to hear that they're not afraid of playing in the great outdoors!

Melissa B said...

You guys take AMAZING shots!!! They are truly beautiful!