Berry picking

Hello everyone!

As I mentioned in my last post, I haven't been able to do very much at all recently, which is incredibly frustrating! So when we had spontaneous family day out at a pick your own farm this weekend, it was such a treat.

We had never been to a pick your own farm before, and arrived to find huge fields full of all sorts of different types of fruit and veg, with handwritten signs explaining what each crop was with a few handy tips here and there for the more inexperienced visitor. There were piles of baskets and punnets and sacks to collect your chosen fruit or vegetables in, excited children hunting for the biggest, reddest, juiciest looking strawberries and couples strolling hand in hand leisurely filling up their baskets as they went. Initially we were a little unsure and hesitant, not really knowing what we doing at all, but after a bit of advice from one of the lovely workers there, we were soon getting stuck in just like everyone else! For our first trip, we just stuck to the strawberries and raspberries. It didn't take long for David to lead the way having figured out the best location for the ripest fruit, and I soon discovered the parts of the bushes people had missed and big, juicy strawberries were hidden, waiting to be picked. Lily absolutely loved helping us hunt for the reddest berries, learning how to pick them off the plants and collecting them up in her own little punnet. She even managed to find a few muddy puddles that were perfect to jump in along the way! 

She was so, so proud of the fruit she had collected, and was talking all the way home about her 'barspberries'. We picked up some chocolate on the way home and planned to put together a fruit fondue in the evening, but Lily was absolutely desperate to get her hands back on her lovely 'barspberries' and they were gone very soon after we arrived home with many 'mmmmm yummy' and 'Oooh, delicious!' exclaimations from her. The strawberries then waited for later on, when after dinner, we sat around our table watching Jamanji and dipping them in warm, melted chocolate. 

It was the perfect way to spend a quiet Saturday afternoon, and we are now planning our next visit where we will be a bit more adventurous and pick some vegetables! I think it will be the perfect way to get Lily excited about veg she doesn't usually eat, and I'm sure will make her much more willing to try them if they are 'hers' she's picked herself! 

xo