MI Fave #4 BERRY PICKING

Each year we have thoroughly enjoyed our berry picking excursions. There are strawberries, blueberries and our favorite RASPBERRIES! The farms are all within a half hour from our house. Strawberries are not my funnest thing to pick. The plants are low to the ground and the berries are hidden under the leaves, and the first time we went it was 100+ degrees, 100% humidity and I was 10 months pregnant with Lucy. I never exaggerate... But, oh, the taste of those sweet candy like berries is so worth the back pain! We went with some friends just a few days ago and this time the kids were the perfect height for picking (and stepping on them) and the weather was beautiful! Blueberries are awesome because the bushes are tall, no bending there! And you can get 4 or 5 off the bush in one pull. We eat them fresh for a while then freeze the rest and enjoy yummy blueberries all year in oatmeal or pancakes or just because. The raspberries are the best because we LOVE how they taste combined with pounds of sugar and gelatin. Every fall we make tons of raspberry jam and each year we go through it faster and faster. Oink, oink. Our big boys have become jam snobs and refuse to eat store bought jam. I honestly don't blame them, but come on, we've been out of jam since February and they've got to be sick of Peanut Butter and Honey sandwiches by now! But no, they think it's better than sicko jam... The best berry picking we have every year, however, is right in our famous Abbot Elementary's backyard. The Abbot Woods has hundreds of wild berry bushes growing in there and it seems no one else knows or cares. And since we didn't die the first year eating them, we kept doing it and loving it more each year. It is so fun to walk up to the school and go have a snack of handfuls of berries. We are sure going to miss these this summer and fall. The dream of Arizona oranges come this winter might make it a little more bearable...