Black and Blue

No, this post is not about bruises. (Thank goodness!) It's about berries! Last weekend, we went on a blueberry and blackberry picking adventure to the farm where we get our CSA from. It's about an hour away from us, and we weren't quite sure what to expect. Turns out it was a great place to visit! A nice big covered porch with tables, a porch swing, and ceiling fans. A cute little market shop with various fresh produce and local goodies (think jam, honey and the like). Lots of kid stuff to play on, including a pirate ship! And the berry bushes were just a short walk from the main building and were "easy pickings" as long as you weren't too jumpy about Japanese beetles buzzing at you amongst the blackberries.

Is that a scale Hayden is sitting on? Why is that, you may ask?

....Because this is what the sign says!

If we lived closer, I could see this being a really cute thing to do every year to see how the kids grow!

Along the blackberry row. We started with blackberries first.

Yummy!

Then we moved on to blueberry picking. Hayden jumped right in, because she is a professional berry picker by now. She encouraged Poppop to pick with her, because "this is the best bush, with the best berries."

Even Jason worked hard at picking blueberries.

More yummy!

Eliza thought it was a bit too hot for berry picking. She's holding onto my legs and I am taunting her by taking her picture instead of picking her up.

But don't worry about Eliza.
Jason took her back to the shaded porch and they had a great time on the swing.

Poppop and Hayden show off their blueberry haul. (Eliza loaned Poppop her bucket.)

After we were done picking, we hung out back at the building for a while. Both girls loved the swing. We ate a little bit of lunch, checked out the market place ('seconds' cantaloupes were onl a $1 each!), and paid for our berries. The berries were QUITE expensive, even if they were certified organic. I mean, we picked them after all! But the best part of the day was....

ICE CREAM!!! Homemade, inexpensive ice cream served in HOMEMADE waffle cones. Waffle cones that were made fresh that morning. DELICIOUS!
Don't you just love how Hayden's eyes are lit up in this picture?! They even had her favorite flavor - mint chocolate chip. (We also sampled cookies-n-cream and peach. Yum.)

All in all, it was a great excursion to Vollmer Farm. Supposedly they have quite the setup for pumpkins in October, but I'm just not sure we'll be making the trip again this year, unless Nugget makes a special request. But we did have fun picking blacks and blues!

Me and my berry-picking protegee.