Berries!

If any of you had any doubt that I was my mother's daughter, our shared love of fresh picked berries will cast out any remaining doubt.  She loves going to pick berries and loves having them in her freezer to use year round.

Today, I got my berry picking on.  I started off the day with some pancakes with a blueberry sauce and a dollop of ricotta cheese.  I actually still have a few cups of blueberries left from last year and used them to make this sauce (just one more reason to pick berries!).

I have never really like ricotta until recently, and let me tell you, it's good!  I'm a fan.  It is delicious on these pancakes.  The blueberry sauce was warm and it softened the cheese.  

Give it a try, and I'd be willing to bet that you will clean your plate like me.

But, it's not these pancakes or the sauce that I'm all excited about.  It's the berry farm that's 30 minutes outside of town.  As a kid, I remember being taken out to the berry farm to pick berries and what I thought was way too early in the morning.  I never understood why we had to get so many berries.  It was so hot, even for early in the morning.

But now that I am all grown up, I'm glad my mother taught me how to pick berries like a champ.  Seriously, it wouldn't be summer for me unless I go out and pick berries.  I found a berry farm near where I live, and I just have to go pick them to have them in my freezer.  I can't explain it-- it's like a security blanket.  I also just love having berries to make jam.  Homemade jam is out of this world!

 

I know this looks like a ton of berries for a single girl, but hey, they will all get eaten.  These berries were huge and sweet and just falling off the bushes they were so perfectly ripe.  It's good that they don't count how many berries you eat while you pick... :)

On my way home, I passed a fruit stand that was selling peaches.  I quickly stopped to pick some of those up, too.  I'll be enjoying those this week, as well.  I think tomorrow's project will be to get some of those in the freezer, too!

If you've never picked berries, you need to quickly find the nearest berry farm and start picking!