Picking with the Millers

Last week we had a fun Saturday morning with the Millers from our branch. Scott and Brad are also in the same class at school and it works because we all get along really well. We all got up pretty early to head out to this farm in the middle of nowhere- Nevada, Iowa. When we arrived I think we were all pleasantly surprised. The farm was extremely organized and quite large. The variety of food they grow was extensive but what we picked and what was ripe was blueberries (Brad and I picked five pounds!), blackberries, a few raspberries, and some red currants.

For some reason I was especially excited to go. I think because this is the type of activity I want to do with our kids, as a family.
But for now, it's us, a family of two.

I think Scott was doing mainly a good job admiring his beautiful wife while she picked...

I couldn't believe how beautiful these raspberries were. How the color fades and changes on each one was so artistic to me.

They also had a lot of mutant raspberries. Two that grow together as one. I thought it was strange and they were harder to pick without smushing it to bits. So I stayed away from those weird ones

The boys blueberry picking. I think Rachel and I were just pleased they held their buckets and walked around :) It was not very sunny but it was very humid and towards the end of the morning it became less enjoyable to be outside. Honestly they did great and we had a ton of fun.

These were all the red currants I picked. When we first saw the plants we were convinced we had the wrong patch. They are hiding in little bundles under big dark unpleasant looking leaves. I was interested in picking them initially because I had read an article from Martha Stewart a few years ago that included currants and gooseberries (another fruit they have there but apparently are in season in June) and have been curious about them ever since. Well I picked a few and tried one and wow. They are soooo sour! They were tiny and hard to get to and after seeing my face pucker nobody else wanted to pick them (can't blame them!) so we moved on to the blackberries.
Here are the blackberries we picked. Somehow, even though they were thornless, I still managed to get some battle wounds. It was all worth it, though. Check out how large these are!

Brad still said they weren't as good (and I quote) as the ones in Oregon that were down by the creek that we had to battle the wilderness to get to and that had been sun ripened.
Oh hun, my idealist :)