Picking blueberries has been a summer tradition in my family for years. One (preferably overcast) day in July we pile in the car and head to Russell’s. Everyone grabs a bucket and disappears into the rows of bushes, diligently following Mr Russell’s instructions to put two in the bucket and one in your mouth. When our buckets and bellies are full, we take our treasures home and eat more berries. Some go in the freezer, a memory of summer preserved against January’s chills.
This year was no different. As soon as we arrived, the kids spread out down the rows, shouting, “Look at these!” and “Oh, it’s sooooo good!” But soon silence settled in as we got down to the business of picking. After a while, my oldest and I began to talk about fruit, and deeper things. Here are a few lessons we brought home from the blueberry farm:
1. Sometimes you have to reach for the best fruit.
Easy fruit on lower branches tends to be smaller, a bit more tart, a bit less satisfying. The best fruit is usually on the high, inside branches, where it soaks up all the sweetness of the summer sun. That fruit is often overlooked because it requires more work to get it, but it’s a treasure for those who reach for it.
2. Some fruit only looks good from one side.
On closer inspection, a berry that looks perfect might already have been nibbled on by a bird or bug. Not everything we desire is good for us.
3. You don’t have to keep all the fruit that you pick.
See #2 above. If you pick a berry and it turns out to be no good, you don’t have to hold on to it. The wisest thing is to let it go as quickly as possible and move on. There’s no sense carrying it in your bucket.
4. Not all fruit ripens at the same time.
Berries in the same cluster might be at different stages of ripening. You don’t get all the fruit from an experience at once; you may have to come back again and again to reap the full harvest.
We brought home about 17 pounds of berries this year. But there was a sweeter fruit in the picking that will last far longer than any berry possibly could.