You're gonna be soooo jealous!

Yesterday we went with some friends to a local blueberry farm. An ORGANIC 28 acre blueberry farm. It's only open a few weeks each year when the blueberries are ripe and ready for picking. They have many different varieties and they direct you to certain areas to get the best berries that day. We lucked out since we have 5 small children with us and got sent to a separate area from most folks. The man pulled me aside and told me the bushes in this section were lower to the ground and very full of berries. I think there were only 2 or 3 other families in that whole section. They let you eat as many berries as you want while you pick too. Yum! But the best part? They only charge $1.50 per pound. That is no typo. $1.50 per pound!

After a quick lesson to the munchkins about which berries were ripe and which weren't, we were off and picking (and eating).

I didn't realize blueberry bushes got this big, and these are the small ones! Everyone got their own buckets, well except for baby Henry. He just picked leaves and ate them!
Levi showed himself to be a Champion picker. He didn't complain about the heat either.
We all had fun in the heat, sweating up a blueberry storm.
We took frequent breaks in the shade to try and cool off. Even early in the morning the heat is a killer.
After 1.5 hours we had collectively picked 18 pounds of berries. These berries were huge, some as big as grapes. That was 10.5 pounds for our family and 7.5 pounds for our friends. (Numbers rounded for my laziness)
Off we headed to get our berries weighed and paid for, and pick up some cold drinks.
One of us was not happy. Any guess who? He wanted to be carried. Forty five pounds of sweaty boy on top of buckets of berries? Sorry son, but No. And what happens when you tell a very hot and sweaty small stubborn boy No? He metamorphs into McScreamy!
This is how he left the fields. Screaming his head off. I walked a way behind and muttered comments like, 'Gee Mister, can't you control that kid?' as the other people passed us. Luckily Chris couldn't hear me cuz of the screaming!
So what do you do with 10.5 pounds of fresh blueberries? I took most of them, sorted and separated them into 1 cup baggies, placed those in freezer bags and popped them into the deep freeze. They will keep up to two years. That was 28 cups of berries. Then I made a blueberry/lemon coffee cake for Sunday breakfast. And today I am going to try my hand at some jam. We also have fresh berries for munching, topping yogurt, ice cream or cereal.