Going to the blueberry farm

I (Papa Bear) love berries. So does Mama Bear. We both need more fruit in our diet. Berries are expensive. But we found out recently that there is an organic blueberry farm near our home in southern Mississippi. $9 for a gallon of berries, so long as you pick them yourself.

So we drove to the Pearl River Blues berry farm in Lumberton, MS to find that we were their first customers for the season. Good timing, us! We were greeted by the owners, two dogs, a cat, and about 20 chickens. The chickens were in their movable shed -- more on that later -- but they still said howdy.

After being outfitted with buckets and given a brief lecture on blueberries, we were turned loose in the rows of bushes. Turns out, Baby Bear loves blueberries, too. As the owner of the farm noted, it's a good thing they don't weigh you coming in or going out, or we would have had to pay extra for what she ate. And it only took a few attempts at eating green berries for her to discover that the blue ones taste much, much better.

Picking the berries was a relaxing experience and also good exercise. It was a beautiful day and while it was hot, the productive nature of the work made it bearable. Mama Bear said she would love to do it every day. Baby Bear also seemed to enjoy chasing kitty cats between the bushes while improving her farmer tan.

We collected our gallon bucket full, ate a bunch straight off the bushes, then sat around and talked to the owners for a while. Good people. And while we were still there, Mama Bear got a lesson in raising chickens for eggs. We can't keep chickens where we currently live (as renters), but that's in the long-range plans.

For being the first customers of the season, the gave us a free jar of blueberry jam and a recipe booklet. We also bought 6 organic eggs (collected that morning) and they gave us 6 more free, just because. So for $11 and the gas to drive there, we got a great morning filled with learning, meeting new people and good exercise, and plenty of healthy, wholesome food.

We froze a bunch of blueberries last night and made a batch of blueberry frozen yogurt. Today, we made enough blueberry pancakes to last all week. Recipes for both to follow. Mama Bear scrambled some farm fresh eggs this morning and found them to be of far superior structure and taste than any store eggs. She can't wait to bake something with them. Most likely a diet heavily supplemented with blueberries makes those chickens' eggs taste great and they were probably 2-3 weeks fresher than anything from a store, whether organic or conventional. Ultimately whether organic is worth the extra price is up to the taster and his or her budget. For us, organic and/or farm fresh eggs will have to be an occasional treat. At least for now.