Blueberries

Last weekend we drove up to Covington, LA about an hour from here to a wonderful little organic blueberry farm. I have never been to a u-pick farm and of course neither had Chance. When we first arrived we checked in, received our buckets and plastic cups (for water), were told which rows we could pick and off we went. Chance was a good picker for the first 30 minutes, he has definitely reached the 'I do it' stage even though he doesn't use those exact words. I told him to pick the blue ones, that the pink ones were not ripe yet and he said "no, mommy, no...pink." If I left him alone he would start picking blue ones, he just needed to make the decision to do it on his own. He helped pick for the first half hour then he would start wondering off through the rows of blueberry bushes, he was having a good time winding through the plants then he would come back to where I was sitting diligently picking blueberries with one little berry. He would proudly add his berry to the bucket and wonder off again. He was also a big help moving the buckets, as I would work my way to another bush he would pick up both of our buckets and move them down too, which was actually very helpful. One of the farm staff drove a golf cart carrying cold water in coolers drove between the rows. Every time it came by Chance would grab his plastic cup and run over saying "water, water." Most of his water ended up on him rather than in him because after he had a few sips he liked to play with it but either way it cooled him down and he was having a good time. We arrived at 9am and by the time we left at 11am it was already very hot. By the end Chance had stopped running around and since his bucket only had an adult handful of berries in it so we poured his berries into my bucket and turned his bucket upside down to make a seat where he planted himself for the rest of the time.
He has recently become more in tune with his dramatic side and is happy to share it on camera more and more. He has really started working on posing for the camera as you can see in these pictures.
When we got home we found some really tasty and easy recipes for our blueberries. One bucket comes in at 10 pounds though so even after making 4 jars of jam and 4 jars of blueberry butter we still have a 1 gallon ziplock bag in the freezer and a smaller ziplock bag in the fridge. I think its time to give some to the neighbors.
We had a great time, I will have to look for other farms to pick other fruits and vegies in the area. This would be a great thing to do on vacation if you had a way to get them home relatively soon or if you were staying with someone, it would be great to pick some then purchase the ingredients and make some jam to leave as a 'thanks for letting us crash at your place' gift.