Yesterday my Dad arrived, to spend the day with us. Naturally, we headed out to do a favorite summertime activity: blueberry picking. It just wouldn’t feel like summer for us without blueberry picking. On the way to our neighbor’s organic blueberry farm, we stopped at the Deadwood Farmer’s Market. We saw Mary Lou, along with some other neighbors selling there. Mary Lou showed me a bag containing letters from around the world, from many of you. (You’re so great!) She had the cutest smile when she was showing me, she was so pleased to connect with new friends. She told me that she didn’t believe there was any such thing as strangers in the world, just people she hadn’t met yet. We chatted a little more and then got back on the road to go blueberry picking. 

It was the middle of the day and it was hot, but we were dedicated pickers and continued on, with sunhats. The field had just opened up the day before. They told us that the berries were late for them this year (usually picking on the 4th of July.) The picking is always slower in the beginning of the season. In the middle of the season, with so many berries ripe at once, your bucket fills up in no time. But when you’re picking the first berries of the season, you don’t mind if it takes longer because they are such a treat.

 Bracken was practically running out of the car and over to the bushes. He couldn’t wait to start picking.

 And was much too busy to pose for a picture with Grandpa Bob.

 I was really grateful for this favorite sunhat.

 Oh, it felt good to be surrounded by blueberries!

 Bracken decided he wanted to share a bucket with me, instead of putting berries in his own bucket. When he grabbed some handfuls out of the bucket to eat, I reminded him that he would have to pick his own berries off the bushes to eat, since the ones in the bucket we would be bringing home. 

(Reminding him just like the mother in one of our favorite bedtime stories: Blueberries for Sal.)

 Another try at a picture.

 And off he goes to pick again…

We headed home, ate a delicious meal, watched Bracken splash in his pool and the chickens scratch around their yard, while we sat out on the lawn and talked. Bracken enjoyed getting so much attention from Grandpa Bob for the day. He was so hyper and wound up, I joked saying “this is Bracken on blueberries!” 

In the evening, my dad headed back home after our fun day.

If I wondered if it was possible to eat too many blueberries, yesterday answered it for me. I hadn’t eaten that many myself, but Bracken certainly had. It would have been very challenging to control or monitor how many he was eating while we were picking (there were berries everywhere and he is a blueberry maniac.) I sandwiched our picking time with nourishing meals and snacks, but didn’t expect that he would eat so many. At the end of the day? He got the runs, worse than he’s ever had. (Probably too much information, I apologize.) It made for a long and miserable night, with him crying and generally fussy and waking up nonstop. I was so tired and spacey today that when I went to strain out the batch of bone broth that I had made in the crock pot, I forgot to put a pan underneath my colander and strained my broth right into the sink and it went down the drain! Followed by “Oh my gosh! What did I just do?!” After a fussy morning, he is doing much better today. Lesson learned. I don’t think we will be doing much more blueberry picking this year, it’s too hard to limit how much little guy eats. We usually go so many times each summer, but we will be scaling back this year. 

I still want to fill up our freezer for the winter, though!