The joys of summer are plentiful but I have to say one of my true faves is the gathering of summer’s delicious crops, especially berries and cherries! We are soooo lucky to live smack in the middle of an area with some of the most fantastic producing summer crops. And this year seems to have delivered a bumper crop! Yeh! The kids and I set out to gather so that we could fill up til our heart’s content and then preserve the flavours for our winter smoothies. The fun of visiting each farm provided numerous stories round the dinner table and then some. Here’s some of my snapshots, take a peek!
Photographing the cherries was magnificent since they were just dripping from the branches, not to mention picking them which was a breeze since the trees are fairly young with low branches, perfect for Amelia’s height. One for me, one for the pail, one for me…….
The farms we visited were all in the Oldfield road area in Central Saanich. Our cherries and our raspberries were gathered from Fieldstone Farm. The season is almost finish for this farm but do check just in case. Janice’s farm was a treat to visit with the most prolific crops everywhere you looked. The raspberries were enormous and sweet-just perfect! And the cherries were the most delicious cherries I have ever had. They almost sold out the entire cherry crop this year. She is really looking to increase awareness for their cherry crop for next year so I promised I would share her farm with you. All you need is a cherry pitter (all of $10-15.00) and you can create such yummy things as cherry jams, cherry sorbets, bottled cherries, compotes for cheeses and more. Just enjoying them fresh and local with no sprays is a treat!
We also ventured over a few doors from Fieldstone Farm to Dan’s Farm and Country Market. The array of produce that they offer is incredible. The shot of the berries above is an example of the choices. Do ask which ones that they produce since those will be free of sprays as they bring in product from around the province too (some of which is organic too). The kids especially loved this farm since they have a fun goat display where you can feed the animals- but we almost had heart failure with a potential runaway goat that was trying to shimmy his way out of the pen-we managed with a little panic to push him back in!-thank goodness! There were adorable bunnies and chickens for them to visit as well. What I love is the u-pick flowers here where you can customize your own fresh picked bouquet-I had a field day!- no pun intended! We stopped in again today and they still have u-pick raspberries which were divine! And the goats pen fencing has since been repaired!
Our blueberries were just gorgeous. We managed to place an order with Bear Hill Rasperry Farm ahead of time so that we could reserve our berries. Ruth really made the kids day when she offered to let them choose a birds nest from the enormous collection of nests that they have come across on their farm over the years. And she also set me straight on how to freeze the berries- I used to place them on a cookie sheet and freeze before placing in a ziploc- but her berries were so perfect all we did was bag them and freeze them- no washing or picking over required. She also suggested that I freeze the perfect raspberries right in the carton for 2 days and then gently place them in the ziplocs! So much faster and easier than what I was about to head home and do.
I hope you have a chance to visit a local farm for some incredible produce while the summer goodies are so prolific. We all had a wonderful day while creating some wonderful memories together. If you have a favourite local farm that you would like to share please leave us a comment so we too can check it out.
Have a great week!
All those berry shots are just so gorgeous I cannot believe it! Makes me homesick! The cherries too- so yummy! Amelia and Elliot are adorable.
I think I may have to sit down and paint those cherries-What a great photo!