Buried in blueberries

For the last couple of weeks, I've been picking blueberries.

The first pick wasn't so bad, just a modest bowl-full. It took only a few minutes.

Well, that didn't last. Now the berries are ripening fast and I'm picking every other day (this photo is three days' worth of berries).

After I pick over the berries to remove any stems or blossom ends, I bag and freeze them.

The trouble is, it's been very hot here lately (102F yesterday), and I can't pick berries in full sun. Aside from the heat factor, for whatever reason I have a hard time tell ripe berries from nearly-ripe berries in full sunlight. That's why I prefer to pick in the shade. I can't pick early in the morning because by the time I finish milking Maggie, the sun is already on the blueberries. I've been picking late in the afternoon when a bit of shade falls on the berries from some nearby trees, but that only worked until the berries really ramped up production and the longer picking time starts interfering in our evening chores.

So I rummaged around in the barn and found an old umbrella we used during our craft booth days. Propped up against the ridgepole over the berries, it's a compromise.

Here's the thing: The blueberry season has barely begun, and already I'm devoting 1.5 hrs every other day simply to picking. That's likely to increase even more, probably to two hours every other day. Last year, if you recall, we harvested just short of 60 lbs. of blueberries. I would not be surprised if we doubled that this year. (We've already let neighbors know we have berries for sale.)

So there's a lot of picking ahead of me in the weeks ahead. Whenever I weary of the endless chore, I stop and give myself an attitude adjustment. How many people working cubicle jobs would do anything to spend a couple of hours in a blueberry patch? It helps change weariness into gratitude.

Honestly, I never expected the small bushes we planted four years ago to do this well ... and they're still not fully mature. How much more can these bushes produce? Time will tell.