Berry Bonaza

Yesterday was a very berrylicious day.  We started the day by driving out to the country, to a local U-pick farm, where their blueberry patch is starting to get deliciously blue.  We saw the patch on Saturday, but since it was late in the day and we were both tired, we decided to go back early in the morning to pick when it was relatively cool.

Good thing we did, too; even by 9AM, it was pretty warm, and it got noticeably warmer while we were out there.  We had only intended to pick 3 or 4 pounds, but I guess we really got into it, because we ended up picking around 11 pounds!

And that's only half of what we got!  We gave the rest to Chad's folks.  I decided to clean and fleeze all the blueberries we got today (after I told Chad to eat his fill - he ate three handfuls), and then use them for berry ice cream, maybe some more jam, and if there's any left, I'll blend them together with fresh local apples and make blueberry applesauce to put up for the winter. 

What made me decide to freeze all 5-6 pounds of blueberries is this:

My strawberry patch is just about done producing for this year, but I have more berries coming.  I have two dwarf blueberry bushes that are producing their first crop today, and giving me about a handful of berries a day.  Then I have two large raspberry brambles that just produced  their first berries of the season yesterday; I got about a cup!  Usually I get one or two at a time while the plants ramp up production, but this year...  I told Chad it's like the canes sneezed and out popped all these berries.  I hope it's a sign that we'll have a good raspberry year!

Fresh Picked

You know what my favorite time of the year is?

Strawberry season!!!  Yes, my friends, it's that lovely time of year when the strawberries decide to bless us with their bright red deliciousness. 

I'm lucky enough to have two sources of strawberries.  The first is my 2x4 raised strawberry bed.  It managed to produce almost two gallons of strawberries last year, which was enough to make Chad sick of strawberries by the end of the season.  The second source I have is one that I was blessed with.  We have lots of wild alpine strawberries growing all throughout our yard, and one spot, in the small side yard next to the chives, is so well suited to them that there's dozens of plants, and the berries get very big (for wild berries).  I love them not only because they're free, but because they have a flavor that's unmatched by any cultivated berry.  They take the flavor of a regular berry, and condense it down to fit into a tiny package.  It's like eating candy. 

I plan on going to a large field this weekend where I know a lot of wild strawberries grow.  Hopefully I'll have timed this right.  Usually I'm too early or too late, which is easy to do because wild strawberries only have about a two week season. 

Nature is awesome!