Ladies of leisure pick berries

As I've mentioned before, i have a very weighty responsibility as an unemployed to fill my time with the things that all of those who are currently employed would rather be doing. You think this is an easy task, do you? Well, watching television just doesn't cut it, no sirree, not with the employed friends I have. They would rather be taking trips and writing books and going to museums. And there are only so many hours to the day (oh you'd be surprised how these weeks are flying by!). Really, i don't know how people have time to work, when there are bike rides to be had, museums to visit, and berries to pick. But dear, friends, everything I do, i do it for you.


We took a little trip out to a farm in NJ with the Relief Society ladies last week to pick berries. The farm was so dreamy by this sleepy river and tiny little town with a cute antique shop.


I adore blueberries!!! YUM! Half of these made it into my bucket, and the other half into my belly. I had to try them all to make sure that they were ripe, right? NJ blueberries are different from he berries that i am accustomed to picking. As a kid, I would traipse in the woods in Finland collecting little blueberries from plants near the ground and they stained my fingers and teeth blue. These NJ blueberries were much larger, with a white center and grew on bushes. Upon further investigation, I came to discover that the berries that I've always picked and called blueberries were actually Bilberries, related to blueberries, but harder to cultivate and usually grown wild in sub-Arctic areas (that explains why they are in Finland). All these years, and I never had any idea. What else is there in my life that I've been completely mistaken about?

Well, with Trina and Kamilah (and Tess and Sarah), we still enjoyed picking these blueberries.

I brought home a whole bucket full!

And belly-full as well.


We also managed to find some of these. They weren't quite ripe yet. But I still managed to enjoy them :)


My phone/camera died in the middle of the day, so i didn't get any pictures of the pallet of strawberries I brought home with me (SO. GOOD.), but all in all, a good day for this lady of leisure. To celebrate a successful day on the farm, I whipped up a fresh veggie dinner of sweet corn and roasted potatoes with carrots, with a Finnish swiss roll full of berries and cream. Luckily i had a few willing eaters in Laura, Tyson, and my darling roomies Maren and Rachel.

I also don't have pictures of the leisurely lady activities the following day, which consisted of Melissa and Sindri coming over for some baking with berries fun. WE washed and cut and mixed and tasted and pressed and poured and talked and talked and ultimately concluded the day with a pile of strawberry rubars and blueberry cupcakes to share with the world. Made with lots of love.

Really, I do it all for you. Such a torturous summer, such hard work. xoxo.