Berry Good

Lately we have been picking berries like they're diamonds worth hoarding. We've trekked to a local berry farm three times already, and Cyn is heading back today for more.

We've been going to Rowell Brothers, which is five miles from our apartment, has ridiculously low prices (99 cents a pound anyone?), and an all-you-can-eat free of charge policy.

The main reason we've been going here in Oregon and never did in Wisconsin is in the above picture...boysenberries. These li'l guys are just too hard to find and they're only available for 2-3 weeks every year. If you know much about me, you probably already know of my great love for the boysens. This year's Thanksgiving pie is going to be killer! Not to mention all the Boysenberry Butter Tarts! We've got two gallons of perfectly frozen boysenberries in the freezer.

Some people might call it family fun, I call it child labor.

One more pic of boysenberries...because they're the nectar of the gods.

We made the mistake of picking these Willamette Raspberries (which are amazing) on a brutally hot day. The berries couldn't hold their shape very well in the heat so the only option we had was to make jam.

On Saturday we got almost eight pounds of blueberries. Cynthia enjoyed the outing so much that she told everyone she knew how we got $50+ worth of blueberries for $7.70. It's funny though, everyone has asked "what on earth do you do with that many blueberries?"

Well, on Sunday I used 4.5 cups of berries for Sneaky Chef recipes, we've eaten about 2 cups frozen already, I'll use 4 more cups of blueberries for a Pomegranate-Blueberry Sorbet this week, and I can go through 2 cups per week for snacks at work. At this rate, the berries won't even last through the Fall. By the way, eating blueberries straight out of the freezer makes them taste like ice cream.

Cynthia was so proud of her first attempt at making jam, and I'm also a big fan. I can't believe how flavorful the Willamette Raspberry jam is compared to store-bought raspberry jams.