There comes a time in every child's life....if they are lucky, when they will go berry picking for the first time. When I was a child my friends and I found blackberries to pick. We thought they were growing wild but later thought perhaps they may have been planted because as was the case more often than not when I was a child, I was trespassing during my berry picking. It's not that we deliberately trespassed (well, not ALL the time) to get our berries. It was more like we had no idea that just because you can't see the house doesn't mean its not someone's property. And so we trespassed and gorged ourselves on delicious blackberries and sometimes blueberries. However with the blueberries we knew darn well we were trespassing and did it anyway. Yes, we were rotten kids sometimes.
Obviously as a child I had a lot of freedom...perhaps too much. That was back in the days when you knew your neighbors and they'd tell your parents on you if they saw you doing something wrong. So it took a bit more stealth and a little ingenuity to do some of the stuff we did. But we got good at it.
My kids did not have that freedom. It was a different world than mine was and I am still fully aware of the stuff I was doing wrong, and wasn't about to give them the same opportunities. I took my kids berry picking at an actual berry farm...mainly strawberry picking. We'd take pictures of how stained with berry juice the kids were when they came out of the berry patch and laugh with the owners about how they should weigh the kids before they go in and weigh them when they come out. Not one of the kids came out with any berries in their containers but they'd all claim they didn't eat them too. I guess they were a little bit rotten kids in their own way, eh?
Well times have changed again with my granddaughter and yet not completely changed. We took Shay with us to pick blueberries at a farm and this was her first experience. She's not quite a year old yet so of course she won't have any memory of it. But I can tell her she didn't hate the experience and was mostly content watching us pick from her stroller and making little noises that were probably her version of encouragement for us. She did enjoy a couple of crackers while watching us pick and even when she was obviously a little bored with the whole process she did not utter any form of complaint. Kasey (my daughter in law) and I picked 3 lbs each and got out before it became unbearably hot under the tent. The berries are exceptionally sweet this year which you would not be able to tell by the sourpuss face Shay made when Kasey gave her some to eat.
So Shay, like my kids, will probably never experience the thrill of finding her own patch of wild growing berries but I will continue to take her to pick the blueberries at Easy Pickings as long as she is willing. I used to take Kaylee but she's 12 yrs old now and that kind of stuff is no longer fun at that age. So it's Shay's turn now and eventually she will remember the outings and hopefully enjoy the memories like I do. And for the times she doesn't remember there will be pictures like these. :)
Shay got a little rambunctious with the cover over the stroller and felt she needed to get her feet involved. She certainly knows how to entertain herself!
