pickin' berries

I've never really been a picky eater, but in the past couple of years I have come to love some foods that I once was a little wary of including blueberries. It really is a shame that these weren't one of my favorite snacks early on because they're so good for you (compared to the desserts I usually eat) and because my Grandmama and Granddaddy always seem to have them growing on their line of bushes in abundance. My mom and I carpooled with them on the way home from the reunion and spent the night in Laurel. I hadn't been to their house since the berries started coming in and asked my Granddaddy who rode the last leg with me in my car if he thought there would be any berries left since it was the end of the season. {I partly asked this because I had heard that Sarah, my cousin, and Alex, her beau, did a superb job of picking the bushes clean while they were visiting a week before:) } He was really surprised when my Grandmama went out to check and I believe we were all pleasantly surprised to see the following:






My grandparents-who've been picking the whole summer-could tell that the season was ending but there were still enough berries for us to get about 3.5 pounds, not including the one or two I had fresh off the bush:)


































We picked for quite a while and tried to get to all the berries that were ready, hence the stepladder you might have noticed. By the end though there wasn't too much left and as we headed into the house this is how Grandmama closed off their season...

"We're always glad to see the first berries ripen enough so that we can have some with a bowl of cereal and then always glad when we've picked for the last time and decide to leave what's left for the birds."

I'm just glad I beat the birds!




Once we got inside Grandmama got ready to weigh them with her kitchen scales...
We spread them out on a large pan so that we could easily pluck the stems off any berries that still had them and then left them to air out overnight...

While in the end we did come in slightly under the 19 pounds picked by Sarah and Alex (I'm pretty sure that was their total) there were still enough for me to go home with 3 little boxes thanks to my generous grandparents! I have since had them for breakfast on french toast, for snacks, and for a breakfast supper of waffles.

I'm looking forward to the day when we've A) lived somewhere long enough for blueberry bushes we've planted to mature so that we can get stocked up for the year or B) moved in somewhere where we can enjoy the fruits of someone else's foresight to plant a couple bushes. When that day comes we'll need some help picking from time to time...any takers?