Berry Picking

Relaxing with Hannah in the shade

Lily trying to share her snack with Hannah

Gotta love that rosy, dirty little face!

One of the things I love to do in Maine in the summer is pick our own berries. I was so disappointed to miss strawberry picking this summer (we were already out west)- but thankfully Joe's mom and dad picked a ton of strawberries for us while we were gone (they are wonderful to us)- and now we have a whole freezer full of strawberries. Throughout the year we'll use them to make smoothies, desserts, for pancakes, and if I get ambitious enough I may even make some jam this fall.

We did get to go out once to do some wild blueberry picking. We only got a few cups worth, which was just enough for some good snacking and cereal toppings for a few days. We thought about going to a pick-your-own farm, but decided to go the easy way and bought 20 pounds of blueberries from our friends who's family owns a blueberry buisness. So our freezer is happily full of blueberries as well (these happen to be Lily's favorite).

We DID get out to do our own raspberry picking! The place where we usually pick raspberries every year was all picked out by the time we got settled back home (apparently they didn't have a very good season). So, Joe found another place an hour north of here that still had raspberries and we headed up one Saturday with our friends Brave & Jenny (and their kids Alex & Hannah). The raspberries were a bit sparse and they didn't have nearly as many rows of bushes as the place we usually pick, but we did manage (with some work) to get about 4 quarts of raspberries. Lily had a great time picking raspberries right along her friend Hannah for the first part of the morning, but then she started to melt down a bit in the heat. I have to admit that even I was suffering from the heat and spent the last part of our morning there relaxing in the shade with Lily. You can tell by her pink cheeks in the pictures that it was a hot day! None-the-less it was a fun way to get out with our friends and enjoy some fresh Maine berries!