Berry Picking Protocol

I guess you know you're a bit of a throwback (someone who should have lived in an earlier time, not a fish that's too small) when you get excited about emails that tell you the black raspberries are ripe and it's time to come out to the barn and pick them! Well, that's exactly what happened! My friend, who I'll call Mio, put out an email to all the women in our book club, that her black raspberries are ready to pick. You probably wouldn't think of this as a book club activity, but then our book club is certainly NOT typical.

Last year we all put on our long sleeves, boots, and gloves and headed out on the hottest day of the year to pick berries. You might wonder why all the clothing for berry picking? Well, these are wild berries and they seem to partner well with poison ivy. I know this well, because the first time we picked, I didn't get all gussied up, and I got plenty of poison ivy, which resulted in my being placed on Prednisone, in order to stop the massive itch.

The dose of prednisone is pretty important to follow, but I misread the instructions, and rather than taking four pills for four days, I took four pills, four times on the first day. Now I'm a pretty energetic person anyway, and when I was loaded with steroids, there was a whole new level of energy! I cleaned the house, going so far as to get down on the floor with the vacuum hose and inch by inch vacuum the floors. If I had thought of it, I'm pretty sure I would have scrubbed with a toothbrush too. I hauled four truckloads of mulch and spread them, pulled all the weeds in the flower beds, mowed, and picked more berries, which I rapidly turned in to black raspberry jam. It was a very productive week! You know, it might not be a bad thing to overdose on steroids once a year, just to get all the stuff I don't want to do, done.

So, back to the berry picking. The rules are, we dress for the poison ivy, but bring other clothes to change into. We show up with buckets and we pick berries, and talk, catching up on the things we've been up to since we last saw each other. We all take our buckets inside, change clothes, drink some tea, and then we split the berries evenly among all the pickers. Sometimes I get extra, because the book club group knows that I'll make jam and they'll each get a couple of jars.

This Saturday, if you want to find me, come on out to the barn, but don't think you're going to just sit there and do nothing, wear your long sleeves and boots and gloves, bring your bucket, 'cause you'll be picking too!