Last summer, my family stopped by a little blueberry farm in Michigan on our way home from a beach trip, where we picked a few buckets of cheap and delicious blueberries. I loved it so much I have been wanting to go pick berries with Trevor ever since. I did some searching online, and found that McBride's Briar Patch in Mapleton had raspberry and blackberry picking for only $3 a pound. Since blackberries are Trevor's favorite fruit, I knew we had to drive down and get some.
We first started out picking raspberries. The owner showed us the best berries to pick out and let us try a few varieties to taste the differences. Let me just say, these berries were SO good. I normally don't love eating berries plain. But these were so delicious, I actually wanted to eat them straight off the vine.
The boys were picking buddies. I am not sure how they managed to get any berries in their bucket, because every time I looked over at them they were goofing off.
After the raspberries, it was on to the blackberries. I now know why blackberries are so expensive from the store. They were not as easy to pick as the raspberries. We had to work for the goodness of a perfectly ripe blackberry. The owner told us he calls it "pearl diving" because you really have to hunt for the good ones.
It turns out we are pretty much blackberry picking pros though, because we kept finding the biggest blackberries either of us have ever seen.
I won the prize for finding the biggest blackberry to ever exist, which Trevor decided must be consumed immediately. It was deemed the single best blackberry he had ever eaten in his life, which, considering he does a fair amount of blackberry eating, is quite a statement.
We were such successful berry-pickers, I think we are going to make McBride's Briar Patch a yearly tradition. Luckily, we now have WAY more than enough blackberry, raspberry-chipotle, and blackberry-raspberry jam in our freezer to last us until next year.
On a related note: anybody want some jam?
OK...that's it, you have to come visit the Tate's in Oregon, because it is blackberry HEAVEN here. Seriously, they grow wild on the side of the roads (and in every park and yard and abandoned field). They are delicious...and free. ;) Looks like fun!
ReplyDeleteSend jam my way please! :)
ReplyDeleteps...where we rented in Provo had blackberry bushes. Russ and I used to pick TONS of berries the 2 years we lived there.
ReplyDeleteUh YES PLEASE. But, even more than jam, I want you to teach me how to make jam. :) Looks like so much fun!
ReplyDeleteI want some....YUM!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the jam and for the cute idea. I should totally do that, too! I am going to send you a recipe I found in an Ina Garten cookbook because it uses fresh/frozen berries and looks delish.
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