Sunday, June 7, 2009

Great time Blueberry Picking!




We had a great time berry picking yesterday at the Temecula Berry Co. The cool cloudy weather was pleasant to be outdoors with the kids. Each kids got a cute plastic pail to fill with berries and we adults got pitchers with the # of pints clearly marked on them. One of the owners even greeted us and was nice enough to show us ( and the kids) how to pick berries and choose the biggest, sweetest ones.

It was alot of fun just wandering around rows of bushes you could smell the berries on. So many clusters of deep blue berries, but theres ripe berries then theres RIPE berries, the ones that fall off in your hand ( or the ground) with the slightest touch. Even if its a deep blue, if it doesnt come off with a tiny bit of a pinch/tug motion it needs a few more days to reach its prime. They were still all very tasty to each, some a teeny bit tart from not hittest their sweetest yet and some berries so heavenly theres no way I could each store bought berries again without remembering their sweet sun warmed flavour.

After an hour or so of stuffing ourselves silly with berries ( and alas, the pitchers were full) we paid for our 8 pints of berries @ $5 each, they carefully poured them into the traditional plastic berry box complete with their logo, which made stacking them between layers of ice in the cooler for the trip home really simple. If only I had more cash I would have bought more.

3 comments:

ChristyACB said...

I got just enough berries off my bushes to want more! LOL. The birds always know when a berry is just perfectly ripe and grab it before I can. ::sigh::

Aren't they good when that fresh?

Pam said...

Oooh, I saw a mason bee house in your slide show! Yay for native pollinators! I can't wait until my berries at home are ready!

Sinfonian said...

Isn't it fun doing that! We took the kids raspberry picking last year, but blueberry picking was just the adults. I agree, with the wandering around. The place we went had a half-dozen fields with different varieties in it. Very cool.

This year it looks like I'll have a gallon each bush of my own to harvest. And I second the native pollinators idea. I'm letting a bumble bee nest live in my house and not killing it because they're bumble bees. hehe.