Berry Picking in the Summertime
I meant to take my camera while we went berry picking, but forgot. 
Anyway, this morning, we packed the kids (minus the baby) in the car and drove to a local orchard to pick our own berries. We picked blackberries that were the size of large grapes. 
It was the perfect day for them, since literally, I could stand in one place and almost fill my bucket. I could hardly believe how many there were. Both kids had their own baskets, and they skipped around from place to place, picking berries and exalting when they found new ones. Since we finished so early, we went ahead and picked raspberries, too.
There weren’t as many raspberries, but since we arrived so early in the morning, we still found a few. However, the bees were everywhere around the raspberries. It didn’t bother me at all, but my bug-hating son was not at all happy. I tried to convince him that a few bees never hurt anyone and they weren’t even diving toward us, but he didn’t believe me at all.
Son: They’re just waiting to sting me. They’re just waiting for me to reach my hand over.
Me: They are not going to sting you. Look, they aren’t even bothering me at all.
Son: Well, they’re going to bother me. I know it. They’re going to sting me.
Me: Have you ever been stung before?
Son: No, but I know these bees are going to.
Conspiratorial bees. Too funny. In any event, we made blackberry pie today and we set the raspberries aside to use over vanilla ice cream. Mmmm… 
I’m trying to think of something I could use the raspberries for, besides jam or just for eating. I don’t recall them baking particularly well. Have you ever used raspberries in baking? What’s your favorite way to eat them?
Michelle posted in Writing @ 1:52 pm | Viewed 1082 times
Donna Alward Says:
I’m with your son. HATE bees. I pick early in the morning before they are smart enough to come out. I especially hate them around my head.
I make jam with my raspberries, and they are wonderful over cheesecake (I make a coulis with lemon juice, icing sugar, and berries). But I also make a cobbler, with berries on the bottom and an almost biscuit-like dough on the top, served with ice cream. Mmmm!
My blackberries aren’t ripe yet and the raspberries are just coming on…we never realized when we moved that we’d have bushes on our property! We did make blueberry muffins yesterday, from our own berries. So cool!
Michelle Says:
Donna–I absolutely LOVE picking berries. How neat that you have your own bushes!
We had tart cherries when we lived on base housing, and that was wonderful. But boy, we pitted cherries for HOURS. 
kacey Says:
‘fraid I side with your son on this one. Deathly afraid of bees and mildly allergic. Raspberries and chocolate. Hm, maybe a raspberry sauce made in brownies? Or dip them in chocolate? I just think chocolate and raspberries were made for each other.
michelle of bleeding espresso Says:
Came here via Kacey…love all kinds of berries any which way. I hope you’re enjoying them!