Last week my husband and I took our 16-month old son out for blueberry picking for the first time. Since he was too young to eat blueberries last summer, he had never tasted fresh ones before!
We set him down in the midst of the rows of blueberries and let him walk around. At first he was just happy to be out of the stroller! Then we showed him how to pick the berries — pick the blue ones and leave the green ones — a concept I’m not quite sure he mastered. As soon as he tasted the blueberries, he just couldn’t get enough! He wanted to pick them by the handful! We tried to carefully check his hands to make sure none were too big or too green, but he was so attached to them it was hard to pry his hands open! We let him sample a few and quickly picked our quart of berries, and then moved on to the other fruit the orchard had to offer at the time.
We already knew he loved other fruit, so we made sure to keep him strapped into the stroller when we picked cherries since he can’t eat whole ones yet. Although strawberries were technically winding down last week, we still found quite a few and he thought that was just the best thing ever to pick it right off the plant! Picking fruit with a toddler is certainly a challenge, so kudos to all the moms out there who do it alone! My husband and I took turns picking fruit and supervising our son.
When we got home, we made our own red, white and blue sundaes since we missed the ones that Weaver’s offered. Even though he liked the vanilla ice cream, the fruit was still his favorite and the thing he kept asking us for more of!
We’ve already been back once for blueberry picking and will be sure to come again as the crops last! Check this page regularly to find out if pick-your-own blueberries will be open when you want to pick. Sadly, due to the spring freeze, Weaver’s lost much of the blueberry crop this year.
Here’s a few of Weaver’s favorite blueberry recipes if you’re looking for ways to use up your harvest — that is, if you can keep them away from little hands long enough to bake something!
Skinny Blueberry Plum Smoothie
Blueberry Salsa and Pan Sauce
Blueberry Muffins