A while ago my cousin Erin came to visit us before starting her master's/Ph.D. program at Johns Hopkins(yes, she is a genius). We had a fantastic time catching up and getting reacquainted. Since I moved away from El Paso when I was about 6 years old, Erin and I never really got to hang out as we were growing up. To my pleasant surprise, I found that, as Anne of Green Gables would say, we are kindred spirits. Erin introduced us to Ethiopian food and we took her raspberry picking. Before we got to the farm, I missed my exit and got us semi-lost in the ghettos of North St. Louis city. Erin attended the University of Chicago so she was used to some rough neighborhoods so I felt a little bit better about our misadventure. Erin, being the kind soul that she is, sweetly commented on the interesting architecture and landscape while glossing over the rougher aspects of the area.
Eventually, we found our way to Eckerdt's and began our next adventure. Neither of us had been raspberry picking before but Tyler had and he kindly showed us the ropes. Soon enough we were developing our own theories as to how to pick the sweetest and most ripe berries. Again, Tyler seemed to have the most effective method. He went for sheer volume and taste testing. Erin favored picking based on color while my mom and I based our selections on juiciness.
Of course, the day we went was about 100 degrees and very humid but we had a good time anyway. Jen, Tyler, Isabel, Max, my mom, Erin and I were the only people at the farm picking raspberries that day; I thought it was kind of nice. After about 15 minutes of picking berries and swatting little bugs away from Max's face, I threw in the towel and decided to catch the tram back to the air-conditioned general store. It was at that moment that I realized yet again that I am definitely not cut out for the agrarian life. I do, however, enjoy pretending occasionally.
I must admit that I think that more berries ended up in my mouth(or Tyler's mouth) than in our bucket.
At this point, Tyler seemed to be in a raspberry induced coma. You can't really tell from the picture, but Tyler has raspberry juice all over his face. It was so fun to watch him run around and the berries none of us could see. Despite the heat and the bugs, I loved every second of our raspberry adventure.
3 comments:
What a fun adventure! I agree, there's just something about bugs crashing into your face over and over again that can drive a person mad!
Getting lost in East St. Louis is the reason that I opt to go out and around the city rather than through it. It really doesn't take much longer either.
I used to love picking raspberries with my mom in her berry patch. I have some very fond memories of those days...and of course, of her delicious raspberry freezer jam. Mmmmmm!
I am also glad that Eckert's has thornless blackberry bushes. Wild blackberries grow all over the place in Oregon where I lived, but you sort of had to take your life in your hands to go out fight through the thorns and brambles to pick a cup of berries.
So, here's a huge shout-out for Eckerts for giving us delicious scratch-free berries and memories to go with them!
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