Summer bounty

One of my favourite things about summer is the huge variety of delicious fruits! We've been visiting a couple of farmer's markets weekly, which has been fun; a great way to start the weekend. But even more fun is visiting a pick your own farm. This weekend we visited Butler's Orchard in Maryland. It's a mere half hour drive from us, which seemed almost too close to "civilization" to be a good farm. We were a little skeptical. But once we got out to the gravel and then dirt roads, we knew this place wasn't going to be a little garden plot. It's a very well organised place which uses a collection of signs to direct people to their picking destinations so that the staff can man the shop. We went for the blackberries, but also picked some red raspberries and could have enjoyed blueberries also. I was under the impression that I didn't like blackberries and was originally just going to pick them to use them for dying fabric. But I tried one straight off the vine, and was quickly hooked! The taste is something like a grape, but sweeter, with some little seeds and more fun. Each berry is like a bundle of tiny balloons filled with deliciously sweet (and pretty purply coloured) juice!

For more photos: Berry Picking on Flickr!