It was a perfect day - overcast, not too warm, a nice breeze - exactly the rare summer day that doesn't give me heatstroke due to low blood pressure and an inability to regulate my internal temperature. And it was lovely:
I picked 6 sumptuous pounds of the antioxidant powerhouses in a little over an hour:
While in the past I've feared solo expeditions, I admit to thoroughly enjoying the experience by myself. It was peaceful and meditative. It was also great fun listening to grandmothers exchanging pie recipes, mothers keeping track of a cadre of renegade 5 year olds, fathers frantically proclaiming that they had found THE most prolific berry bush, a little girl bestowing the title of "favorite cousin" to whichever relative gave her the most "tester" berries to eat, and watching families be families... laughing, scolding, chatting, enjoying each other's company. It was a great day.
And then I made jam!
Yeay jam and yeay blueberry picking. I highly recommend heading out and discovering the joy of finding a stash of blue jewels in just the right patch of bushes yourself.
3 comments:
Yay blueberries and everything, but when are we going to see pictures of that sweet bicycle I hear you've got?
(I'm sorry is this being mean? Blueberry picking did sound like it was lots of fun times.)
Although frugality was the basis for your decision, your choice of Pelkey's was right on in all ways.
Pelkey's is the quintessential Vermont family farm operation -- seemingly the site of choice for all the local hardcore pickers, piemakers, jam-makers, canners, and those, like me, just seeking to freeze a winter's worth of berries for future pies, muffins, and pancakes.
Over the years there have been quite a few upscale berry farms popping up on the landscape -- one place in Richmond on certain evenings lets you pick to the accompaniment of live chamber music (now consider what effect that has on the price of your berries) -- but Pelkey's has remained the favored site of the real Vermonters. You might hear country music from somebody's car radio in the distance but you're not going to have to pay for live Mozart. I'm so glad yo treated yourself to this experience!
My first visit to Pelkey's, probably about 20 years, ago was a revelation. Previously I had only picked wild blueberries as a child on the slopes of Mt. Greylock near my home in Massachusetts or in Maine on vacation with my family. Tiny berries on ground-hugging bushes which would yield maybe a quart after an hour or more of diligent labor. An easily distracted boy would be lucky to harvest enough to cover the bottom of a coffee can.
What a delight so many years later to discover cultivated blueberries -- huge berries clustered like grapes on row after row of tall plants! I've spent many a pleasant summer afternoon over the years in the fields, filling trays with berries and consuming many pounds of the same that would never see the weighing table.
Thanks for sharing your experience and evoking some pleasant memories.
Re: bicycle pictures
As soon as you get me the photos off of your camera.
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