Picky, picky, picky...

On Friday, a sweet friend invited people to her dad's fruit farm for some picking--blueberries, blackberries and peaches. He grows all but the blueberries for selling. The blueberries, two rows of them, he just grows for Jenny because he knows she likes them. Isn't that sweet?

We had 4 women and 5 kiddos ready to pick and taste.

We got to his farm around 8:30 or so and it was already hot! But, we started with blueberries. They were so perfectly ripe that we had to make sure not to bump the branches we were picking on or many of the berries would just drop off.

In about 40 minutes of picking, Russell, Randall and I picked enough blueberries to fill a gallon-size ziploc bag 3/4 of the way full and as fat as it could get. And that doesn't include the ones we ate!

Then we took a short break in the shade to cool off and drink water. We could have picked in the shade, but some of the best berries were on the sides of the bushes in the sun! :-)

Then we picked blackberries. And these weren't just any old blackberries. They were big and fat! It's been a long time since I've picked blackberries and I didn't remember how delicious they were when they were fresh off the bush and warmed by the sun.

In about 30 minutes of picking, the boys and I picked 7 quart size ziploc bags of blackberries! They were so big, they filled the bags quickly.

After another break in the shade, we drove to the peach trees. I have never picked peaches and I didn't realize how many could be on one of the small trees! We probably picked 35 or 40 peaches and we all ate at least 1 (Randall ate 3!) while we picked. They were juicy and so, so good!

We finished up around 10:30 and filled the back of my van with our fruits. We were all so excited! We were also hungry from all that hard work and dripping wet from sweating.

Here are some of the yummy fruits we came home with. Blueberries that filled my 9x13 pan about 3/4 of the way full!


Blackberries piled like a mountain on a large pizza pan.


Peaches and some tomatoes that Mr. Jimmy picked for us to take home in a huge Easter basket that Slade's mom gave the boys last Easter. There were more peaches in buckets that the boys used.


I immediately froze the blueberries and blackberries because we were going out of town that afternoon and I didn't want them to go bad while we were gone. I should've taken some with us, but I was in the "getting packed and ready to go" mode and I totally didn't think of that.

We did take some peaches and some of the tomatoes with us. More on our weekend cabining trip later.

Jenny's dad was so sweet that he let us have all of the fruits we picked for free. I'm not sure what it would have cost had we picked them and weighed them like we do at Martin's Berry Patch, but I'm sure it would've been pricey (although totally worth it). And, I can't even imagine what this much fruit would have cost us from a grocery store where you pay $3-$4 for a teeny container (pint?) of blackberries. We were so excited and thankful for not only a very fun morning, but for such a generous gift.

Anyone got any great recipes to use these fruits in? I'm already planning on blackberry tea, peach cobbler and blueberries smoothies. But, that's as far as I've gotten. I'm open for ideas!

I did prepare about 3/4 of the peaches we have left for freezing because there were just too many to eat and they were too good to let go to waste.

I'm looking forward to enjoying these for many months to come!