Berry pickin' ("behbeh pippin", according to my son)

This morning we had a little unexpected fun. My mom called me from work and asked if we wanted to go do some impromptu blueberry picking. So my son, my mom (also known as "Abuela" to my son, which means grandmother in Spanish), and I headed out to the country in search of beautiful blue berries.



Berry pickin' is serious business to my mom and I. Two years ago we planned out our trip, got up super early to drive waaaaaaaay out in the sticks, and each picked at least 8 or 10 pounds worth to haul back. That same year I also purchased official blueberry pickin' jewelry to wear, haha, from etsy, you know, because every girl should have appropriate jewels to don while doing such an important task! Last year the blueberry crops in our area were all ruined from a late freeze, so there was no berry pickin' to be had, and let me tell you, we were devastated. So this year, my mom began scouring the newspaper weeks ago and calling every berry farm around to see when they would be ready. Almost every day she has called me to give me the "updates" on when we'll be going, which, until this morning, was supposed to be Saturday morning. Apparently this morning one of those farmers called her back and told her he'd let us come for a little early harvesting if we wanted to, before the big opening day on Saturday. For us blueberry lovin' gals, that was all the invite we needed. My mom played hooky from work, and we hurried out there. The farmer was only open for a few hours, and since my mom had snuck away from work, we could only pick for about an hour, but we made the most of that hour and we each walked away with 3 pounds of beautiful fat blue berries, for only $3 a pound (a steal if you ask me). And that just only whet our appetite for more -- we'll be resuming our regular berry pickin' come Saturday.

Blueberry pickin' is definitely one of my favorite things about summer.