Berry Picking, Again

We went to the berry patch again this morning.  This time, it was more about entertainment than food acquisition.

I just needed to kill some time with a bunch of kids.  All but mine had never been berry picking and our group ranged in age from 5 to 16 (excluding, me, older than dirt, according to the teenager).

Only one decided that picking berries wasn’t his cup of tea.  He still had fun building a fort for ants and rolling old berries down a gopher hole.  He did finally concede to taste one.  He was sure that he was a dyed in the wool blueberry hater.  He was wrong.  He loved them, and every berry he picked after that went straight in his mouth.  “See,” said one of the pickiest eaters of our crowd, “I told you that you should try new foods!”

The nine year old was the berry picking convert of the group.  He pronounced it The Most Fun Thing he’d done all Summer.  “This is how real people get their food,” I heard him tell the others.

On the way home, he told me that his favorite part was the talking.  He said that the picking gave him a chance to talk to people.  He spent most of his picking time talking to my sixteen year old son.  He told me that sometimes he is too busy doing other things to be able to talk with his friends, but when he was picking berries, there was nothing to do but talk to his fellow pickers.

I love going to the berry patch to pick with friends.  We get a chance to catch up with each other’s lives and families.  I love to see elderly parents picking with their grown children because I can eavesdrop on their family stories.    I tell my own children stories about the berry picking trips we took as children.  My children talk about different berry picking trips they have made.  Their uncle tells them about picking wild berries at fishing camp.  Their dad and my dad tell stories of picking berries with bears in Northern Wisconsin.

In the end, the kids had enough berries in their buckets for the night’s dessert.  I had enough for a pie and another couple weeks of snacking.    It was a great recompense for two hours of kid entertainment.  The trip up to the patch included an ELO sing-along, the trip home was occupied with a game of “Make Me Laugh”.  At least one kid said it was The Best Thing.  The picky eater learned that he liked blueberries.  The nine year old and the sixteen year old got a chance to bond.  Everyone got some Vitamin D and no one was a slave to a screen.  The moms who stayed home got two hours of kid free time.  We all ate our fill of blueberries.

In the end, it’s about more than good food.  It’s about life.