Blueberry Picking is Yummy Fun

(39 Months)

We love blueberries!  Blueberry pancakes, blueberry muffins, heck- give us the container and let us just eat all the way to the bottom.  We love blueberries.  Last year we missed blueberry picking season by one week, and we almost missed it again this year (it's a very short window- about a month, sometimes less, sometimes a week more).

Today, we were lucky enough to not only go blueberry picking, but to have the farm almost all to ourselves.  The farmers handed the kids their little blue pails and told them to snack and pick as many giant blueberries as they could carry!  We began strong, "wow, look at all of those blueberries!", "these are so sweet", "this one is HUGE", "look some are white and pink",  "I'm going to try this one."  Munch, munch, drop in the pail, munch, munch, munch, drop in the pail.  I'm so glad that the farm we went to has a very generous eat as you pick policy.

Then, we slowed down.  Wild One found a stick and started making tracks in the sand along the rows of blueberries.  Little Miss discovered some wildflowers and started picking them.  It was just the hubby and I that continued picking blueberries.  We walked away with a little over two pounds of blueberries.  I'm going to try to save some to make blueberry pancakes and blueberry muffins, but they might be gone before they get into the batter.  There is absolutely no comparison between a store bought blueberry and a fresh off the stem blueberry.

I'd like to say, oh we discussed how these beautiful blueberry bushes all grew from seeds and this was the process, or that we counted each blueberry that we picked, or who had more blueberries in her/his pail, but none of that happened.  There was no lessons here, except that blueberries grow on bushes, not on a tree (like when we went apple picking), not underground (as do sweet potatoes, beets and carrots).  We did look for the biggest and bluest blueberries for out pails, but that was it.  Ooohh- observation skills!  Perfect, it was a science field trip!  I'm just kidding.

They loved picking the sweet blueberries, so did my husband - who by the way never liked blueberries until he had his first blueberry from the farm.  It was his first time picking blueberries too!  I love how we created a wonderful memory for the kids (and us).  On the way home, they reminisced about apple picking with their cousin Buddy and asked to do that again next year. We're so lucky.  I love them so much.

Fast forward to the next afternoon.  I'm listening to Little Miss and Wild One talking during their lunch.  Little Miss: "So, Wild One did you have fun blueberry picking yesterday?"

Wild One: "Yes, I did.  I liked seeing the buggies (bees) on the flowers."

Little Miss: "My favorite part was picking flowers and blueberries."

After nap, we decided to bake a batch of blueberry muffins.  They love baking, the mixing, the measuring, the cracking of eggs.  We adapted this recipe from Allrecipes by using a combination of half wheat flour and half all-purpose flour (instead of all-purpose flour), we also used a mixture of 1/2 white and 1/2 brown sugar (instead of all white sugar), and substituted sour cream for vanilla Greek yogurt, and added 1 tsp cinnamon.  So delicious! Plus, the house smells incredible from the mouth-watering aroma of fresh baked blueberry muffins.  So yummy.