Berry Extravaganza 2020

Last Friday, I used my "float day" from work so the kids and I could head out of town (a bit) and pick berries.

When I realized that while we had picked berries before, we'd never gone to an actual berry farm, I felt a bit like a PNW mom failure (kidding!). We'd robbed our kids of a fundamental PNW childhood experience! Until last Friday, we'd picked wild blackberries and strawberries (from our garden), but those were small potatoes berries compared to going to a real berry farm. As an added bonus, cousin Anna was able to join us. WOO HOO!!

Shockingly, we were in the car and on the road right on time. Who knew THAT could happen?? The drive up to Arlington was a breeze. We hoped to stay dry during our picking time, but the off-and-on rain we experienced on the way north made us question if that would really happen. (We brought boots and rain gear, just in case.) When we pulled into the Biringer Farm parking lot, it was dry and partially sunny. Win!

We left our boots in the car, donned our masks, and headed to the main building to learn about socially distanced berry picking and where to find the various berries we wanted. There were very few people at the farm when we were there, so social distancing wasn't an issue at all. Very often, we were the only people in an entire berry field. It was lovely!

We started out among the raspberries, and then migrated to the blueberries. Eventually, we found ourselves in the tayberry field. The berries practically jumped into our picking boxes (except for the tayberries ... they put up a bit of a fight. They were the only ones with thorns!)

Who were those masked berry pickers??

Conor's PERFECT raspberry

Forget raindrops on roses... we had raindrops on raspberries

Peek-a-boo

Annika picking raspberries

She's a raspberry fan!

Conor and me showing off a wee bit of our haul

Quite the berry-picking foursome!

Heading back from the raspberry field

Annika made a new friend in the blueberry fields

Quite the cutest berry pickers ever!

 When we were picked out, we paid for the berries (you're welcome, Biringer Farm!) and decided we were in dire need of lunch. I searched for "restaurants" on my phone's map app and the first hit was Nutty's Junkyard Grill. We thought burgers sounded good and it was close... easy decision. Oh man!! Were those burgers ever amazing! The fries were plentiful and beyond good, and the onion rings were enormous!!! We were incredibly stuffed and brought leftovers home for the next day.

Speaking of the next day... the next day (for me) was mainly focused on making jam out of the lovely berries we picked the day before. It took many hours, but homemade jam can't be beat. This is enough to last us at least 2 years, so time well spent!

So... much ... jam!