Blueberry Babies

As you know if you’ve been reading my blog for a hot second, I love taking my kids to pick-your-own farms. Apple-picking and berry-picking was something I did with my grandparents when I was a kid, and I cherish those memories – of hours spent in the strawberry fields, filling up flats with my grandmother, and then taking my fruit home to bake something special with her. I have always known that I would carry the tradition on with my kids, and at two and four, they’re old hands in the orchards and fruit fields.

There are so many picking options in the summer – it’s hard to know where to start! Pick-your-own flowers are a thing here, and there’s a place to pick any kind of fruit or vegetable that interests you. We missed strawberry season again (every year) but blueberries were still an option, so I declared last Saturday blueberry picking day. I love picking blueberries with the kiddos – they’re not ready for the blackberry and raspberry brambles, but blueberries are a perfect choice. No thorns, growing in thick clusters on high bushes – it’s as if someone designed blueberries to be harvested by toddlers.

Longtime readers may recall that I loved picking blueberries at Awald Farms when we lived in New York. For our first blueberry season in the D.C. area, I hoped to find something just as good. I considered a few options in Loudoun County, but we always seem to go out there and I was in the mood for something different, so I was definitely interested when I found Butler’s Orchard, a family-owned farm in Germantown, Maryland. I tossed out the idea of blueberry picking at Butler’s while discussing a playdate with one of the other moms from Peanut’s school, and she was into the idea. So on Saturday, we met up with C and her mom for some pick-your-own fun.

There was a big, beautiful farm stand right at the entrance to the farms. We stopped inside to pick up our buckets (they had other places to pick up picking containers as well, but we wanted to get the lowdown and check out the market too). There were plenty of other fruits and vegetables for sale, plus a kids’ area with toys and books, some berry-themed home décor items, and prepared foods and pantry goodies. Plus…

PIE! Heck yeah!

After picking up our buckets, we hopped back in the cars and drove to the fields. After only one wrong turn, we found the blueberry fields. Although the sign warned that the picking was “scattered” because it was the end of the season (note: why can I never seem to keep track of when the picking season is, for anything?) we found that there were still plenty of blueberries and we had no trouble finding lots of fruit left on the bushes.

Is there anything prettier than blueberries on the bush? I don’t think so!

The crew got right down to business. Daddy and Nugget started picking and Peanut tested the merchandise. Nugget needed a bit of explanation but he seemed to grasp the berry-picking concept pretty readily. (It’s not his first rodeo…) And there was only one berry-flinging incident.

Rows and rows of beautiful berries!

I loved Butler’s Orchard! I don’t think I’d ever been to this corner of Maryland before – it was so beautiful. Lovely rolling hills and lush greenery – reminded me of the Hudson Valley, near where I grew up.

Peanut and her little pal had a great time picking berries and chattering away, and I had a similarly great time picking berries and catching up with the other mom. We vented about work, talked about plans for the next school year, and traded ideas about Christmas traditions. (Never too early.)

I’m not sure where the boys were – probably in the parking lot, greeting the trucks – but the girls had a grand time.

Eventually, we all agreed that the sun was baking and it was time to find shade and call it a day on the picking. We both ended up with slightly less than half of our buckets filled. But considering the sad little handful of berries I got last year (when I spent the entire time chasing Nugget away from the cars) we did very well indeed. Our haul:

Blueberries all freshly picked by Peanut and me! (The peaches were from the farmstand. And unpictured – I obviously also bought the kids books: a berry counting book for Nugget and a garden science book for Peanut.)

So, what to do with all of these berries? My plan was to shove them in our mouths by the handful, but Peanut had a better idea.

PIE! We pulled up a recipe online (actually cobbled it together between Martha Stewart and Ina Garten) and got to work. Peanut helped out with pretty much every stage of the baking! (Nugget was a liability.)

She was so excited to be baking like a big kid. I had to drive the ship, of course, but she surprised me by doing a great job following my directions. Now I want to make baking with her a regular activity!