Summer Fruit Picking

Blueberry Picking at Underwood Farms in Somis, CA

Summers always seem to keep us more busy than the school year and my posts have slowed down for the time being. My family always comes to visit in the summer when the kids are out of school and June brought us my sister and her family for two weeks. As a tradition, we always go fruit and vegetable picking when they come. This year, we headed up to Somis, CA to pick fresh, delicious blueberries.

The highlight was when Elena discovered a beautiful birds nest among the blueberry bushes.

Needless to say, the three girls ate most of their blueberries as we were picking, so we had to double time it to fill their baskets before we left, while my nephew swiftly filled his as the victorious champion blueberry picker! :D

That night, the girls and I settled down to read the lovely tale by Robert McCloskey called, "Blueberries for Sal".

A couple of weeks later, we did our annual cherry picking field trip with one of the local homeschooling groups.

"Hey, who's eating all my cherries?"

A job well done!

Doesn't look so good, but it was delicious - a blueberry, cherry pie!

Cherry Blueberry Pie
(from Rhodes website)

1 ¾ Pounds sweet cherries (rinsed & pitted)
3 Tbsp. Lemon juice
1 ½ cups. Fresh Blueberries (rinsed & drained or, frozen)
1 Cup Sugar
¼ c. cornstarch
2 tsp. Butter (cup into small pieces)

In a large bowl mix cherries & blueberries w/ lemon juice. Combine sugar & cornstarch gently stir into them.

Spoon mixture into pastry in pan, scatter butter evenly over fruit. Top pastry with shell. 13x17’ pan.

Bake on bottom rack of a 400 temp. Regular oven or convection oven until fruit is bubbly in center and pastry is well-browned approx. 1 hour, cool for 3 hours.