One of our favorite things about the warmer weather is berry picking season! Earlier this year we went strawberry picking at Atkinson Farms, and just a few weeks ago we went blueberry picking at Moorehead’s Blueberry Farms.
We had never been before, but I saw several people with wagons which I plan on doing next time since I have more than one toddler to chase around. The wagons are also useful if you have waters and diaper bags to carry around since you will need an extra hand for your pails. Moorehead’s Farms provides big or small buckets and you pay by the pound. They also have a snow cone stand and a nice shaded picnic area.
We chose Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey as our book, although it was a little long for most of our toddler’s attention spans! The illustrations in this book are fun for kids though, and most of our kids were like Sal in that they mostly ate the blueberries instead of putting them in their buckets-kuplunk!
It had been awhile since I had read this book, and I didn’t realize this one had another bear theme to it, much like our Going on A Bear Hunt meetup. So it was fun coming up with another bear craft for the kids. We brought teddy grahams and yogurt covered craisins (I looked for yogurt covered blueberries but couldn’t find them at the store).
For the bear masks, I cut out a template I found here and then used cardstock in paper bag brown and cut out holes for the eyes. Then we glued on pink circles for the ears and a black circle for the nose. I had a bunch of these paper straws leftover from a birthday party as well, so we just stuck it on with some tape on the back.
Despite the heat, the kids had a blast! Do you have any books you love that go along with fruit picking? What are some of your favorite places to get fresh produce in your area?
Here are also two of my favorite recipes to use whenever we have extra blueberries (which rarely happens, but you never know!) Blueberry Muffin Loaf from Twigg Studios and this Blueberry Arugula Salad by Broccoli & Muffins
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