August 26, 2010

Yesterday was a long, fun and productive day. The weather was beautiful, sunny and warm. The night before, the kids had 5 friends for a "sleep"-over, so everyone was in a festive, even if slightly sleep deprived sort of mood.

After Adam left for work, we took one friend home and picked up several more. We went all went berry picking behind the Superstore near our house. After a while there, we picked up a couple more and went to Air Force beach for more berry picking. There are feral rabbits all over and some of them are quite habituated to humans. Some even would eat out of your hand. Robin had one little guy (or girl) climbing into her berry bucket for a nibble. After just over an hour or so we had about 5 gallons of blackberries.

We were all pretty warm (and hungry) so after another quick trip home for the dogs, a change into shorts and walking shoes Robin treated us all to pizza. 5 pizzas were inhaled in 6 minutes. . .it was something to see. Next it was time for a quick dip, so we went to Angel Falls. . . What a COOL spot!!! The kids had a great time jumping off the rocks into a nice swimmin' hole. Robin and I even took a quick dip. The water was very refreshing and soothing.

Next, it was back home again to make dinner and process the berries. I put a big roast and a BUNCH of potatoes into the big roaster and let'er go. Robin and I worked on berries late into the night (with various assistance from kidlets). Thank goodness for the covered deck and scookum camp stove we have. It made the whole thing a whole lot less unpleasant than working in a hot kitchen. When we were all through, we ended up with 42 jars of jelly, jam, and pie filling, 3 quarts frozen berries and 1 berry puff pastry thing. The pastry lasted for about 5 minutes (only because it took that long for me to distribute it.). Hopefully the canned stuff will last a bit longer. I hope to get a few more berries next week and do some syrup, freeze more berries and do a pie or two. I think I will let my scratches heal and get the thorns out of my fingers first, though.