Blackbirds and Blueberries

Last night after work, a group of us went out to the Blackbirds and Blueberries farm near Cloquet to pick berries.  The owners are the parents of a family friend that we met through hockey.  We arrived near 5:00, and the weather was HOT.  The sun was shining, the birds were singing at us, and the blueberries were ready to come home with us!

We were instructed to head back to the south field, where there would be plenty of berries for us to nab.  We made the short quarter mile (or so) hike to the back area, and chose an area to begin in.

If you looked across the field, you could see heads of all the "pickers" popping up within all the rows of bushes.  The bushes were taller than what I was expecting, although my only previous blueberry picking experience was with wild blueberries up the Gunflint Trail many years ago, and those bushes weren't more than a foot high.

Aren't they pretty?  As we were picking, you could hear the plunk, plunk, plunk of each berry as it hit the bottom of the empty buckets.  Plunk!

And then, when your daughter finds a berry with a slight imperfection on it in the shape of a heart, of course you must take a picture of it.  Practically a requirement.

It finally started to cool down a bit, but then the rain started.  And stopped.  And started.  And stopped.  And then it let loose on us, and we were drenched, and laughing, and having so so so much fun!  We collectively decided to stop picking though, since we were pretty soaked.  It was very hard to stop.  I knew I didn't have as many berries as I'd hoped for, and walking back to the car right past several berries screaming at me to take them home with me was so hard!

Of course, when we got to the shed to have our berries weighed and to pay for them, the sun came out in all its glory.  That's ok though, because it really poured on us again on the drive home.  Luckily we were inside the car at that point.

We brought our loot home, gave them a quick wash, and laid them out to dry a bit.

We packed most of them up in baggies for the freezer, and left some out to enjoy now.  I really have no specific plans for them, other than to eat them on ice cream whenever we feel like it! 



I know this seems like a lot of blueberries, but I know it won't be enough to get us through an entire year.  I'd really like to go back some time next week and pick again since there were still several green ones around.  I'm not sure if I'll get the chance with two upcoming hockey tournaments and a husband on a fishing trip, but we'll see.  I'm happy I was able to get what I did, but more would be good too!

So even though we got soaked, it was a very fun time, and we came home with some delicious snacks!!

Check them out at http://www.blackbirdsandblueberries.com/

Berrylicious...

NH