Blueberries in 2012

Almost exactly one year ago, Finley had his first blueberry picking experience.  Here is my blog entry about our morning at Honey Pot Hill with some friends last August.

http://findingfinley.blogspot.com/2011/08/blueberries-for-finley-and-eliot.html

Despite the extreme heat and being a sleep-deprived mother of two, I felt the need to take the kids blueberry picking this morning.  We checked the web site of the orchard to make sure blueberry picking was a go and then we piled into the car (have I mentioned how difficult that is with two in tow?).  

Blueberries for Sal is a favorite of Finley's at bedtime and he was thrilled to be living the plot himself. Dan freaked him out a little bit last night, though, when he asked him if there would be any bears at the "blueberry farm" like in the book.  Bad Daddy.  I successfully convinced him that bears wouldn't be there and he seemed relieved to tell me that bears only live at zoos.  I left it at that. To follow the story, Finley asked if he could bring his pail to collect his berries and while I knew we'd get a box for picking at the farm's store, I figured giving him his own receptacle with a handle would prove worthwhile.  I tried and tried to get a solid picture of him before heading to the bushes...but he was too excited and goofy to give me one.  Can you sense the spirit of the moment??

In the car, we had talked about which berries to pick--not the green or purple ones, but the blue ones.  He got right to work and knew just which ones to pick and happily dropped them into his pail  He reminded me that he was "Little Sal" and I was "Little Sal's mom" as we picked in the first row of bushes.  I asked who Dagny could be and after a brief pause, he said, "How about Baby Sal?" Genius! If you don't know the story, I'm sure this doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but hang in there with me!

He picked a few handfuls and then asked if he could eat some and I said, "of course!" and that was the end of the pile of berries in his pail...

 We trudged along the rows, looking for "good" bushes to pick from and Finley munched away just like Little Sal.  He even asked me to dump some of my blueberries into his pail so he could eat them--I obliged and he munched on.  I kept reminding him not to eat too many so that he wouldn't get a belly ache and he assured me he was okay.  Thankfully, he kept picking with about 50% going into his pail.  He had fun going in and out of the rows and trying to show me where to pick.

 It was SUPER hot and Dagny was passed out in my front pack, which made it feel twice as warm out to me, but Finley was happy as a sweaty, purple-handed clam in the blueberry patch.  I smiled and thought how proud I was of myself for making this adventure happen when we could have just as easily stayed home in our PJs :)

We made out way back to the stroller and Finley dumped most of his berries into my box, but kept a few to snack on en route to the car.

 

Our spoils!

Now it will be Blueberries for Finley, Dan, and Allison (and Dagny, indirectly) for the next several days!