One of our favorite things about summer is berry picking. We love going out as a family and picking raspberries, blueberries and blackberries. It used to be that we had favorite places to go to find a patch of berries, but not anymore. We are so fortunate to have loads of wild raspberries that grow at Birch Forest Lodge. Not only are there raspberries behind cabin 10 and the Voyageur cabin, but across the road on our property we have several acres of wild raspberries. And did you know that there are blueberries near the beach by cabins 4 and 5? Sorry, if you are in to blackberries we can’t help you much there. So what can you do with the berries? Here are some of our families favorite things to make with fresh berries:
- make homemade ice cream
- bake a pie
- homemade turnovers
- milkshakes
- jam
- eat plain!
- put over the top of vanilla ice cream
- make raspberry rhubarb crisp
What is your favorite way to eat fresh berries?
There are many great ways to pick berries. Our 8 year old daughter, Adyson, likes to take an ice cream bucket and run a belt through the handle so that she can have both hands free for picking. Brock, our 5 year son, doesn’t bother with buckets, nothing makes it past his mouth anyway. As you can see in the above picture, he also doesn’t waste time walking along the edge of a berry patch. He just likes to get into the berries and find the nice juicy ones.
You might be wondering when is the best time of the year for picking berries. July. Hands down, July is the best for berries. Berries need sunshine and warm weather. While June can be very nice, the berries aren’t usually out till early July. The raspberries in particular will be good through most of August. So if you are looking for another reason to come visit in July or August, plan on some berry picking!
