Blackberry picking

Why didn't we do this along time ago?

Growing up in dry West Texas, I only read about people going berry picking in books. The climate simply was not hospitable to berries of any kind. I do remember one time when I was little and we helped my grandmother pick prickly pear fruit for making jelly, but that's a very different experience. We had to use long tongs to pick the fruit to avoid getting stabbed by thorns!



So when we decided to go blackberry picking Saturday morning, it was like a fairytale for me. Even the intense Southeast Texas heat couldn't dampen my spirits! If it hadn't been so hot for the kids, I could have spent hours there just snacking on berries and snapping pictures.



Though we're nearing the end of blackberry season, the bushes were still loaded with plenty of fruit for little fingers to pluck.





Clara hung out in the shade of her stroller.



Even though you can't see her face in this photo, you can tell she is awake and happy because her feet are up in the air. The only time those feet stop moving is when she is asleep!

Jonathan and Elizabeth were on a mission to find the biggest berries.





Look how big and plump some of them got! Can you say, "Yum!"?

The rows of blackberry bushes were edged with huge beds of gorgeous zinnias. Apparently butterflies love zinnias as much as I do because there were dozens of them flitting about. Photographer heaven!



We ended up picking about 15 pounds of berries which we ate fresh, froze, and made into a blackberry crisp and blackberry jam. We're going to be enjoying these berries for a long time to come!