blackberries for sal

saturday we went blackberry picking. now, i know that there are blackberries a plenty that we could have foraged on trails or by the roadside perhaps. however, these beauties we harvested from a certified organic farm run by the sweetest couple and they were only $2 a pound! there were several rows of thornless bushes so the littles were able to have their fill of picking without fear of being pricked.

the kids brought their own beloved bolga baskets. sienna dubbed jasper *lil sal* right away as his basket never had more than three berries in it because he quickly ate them all! jasper was quite fond of the moniker and insisted that we only call him sal for the rest of the adventure.

excerpt from the wonderfully sweet book *blueberries for sal*

it was a beautiful overcast morning and we were blessed with temperatures in the seventies....at least initially. the sun came out in spurts and heated things up a bit and jasper promptly melted. he has a very low threshold for the heat. in the hour before he gave out, sienna and i managed to pick 8 & 1/2 pounds. she was so proud of her colorful basket brimming with blackberry goodness!

i just love these berry stained faces!

when we returned home, *jamberry* was promptly brought out and has been a favorite for days now. such a sweet and simple book full of rhyming berry delight.

"quickberry! quackberry! pick me a blackberry! trainberry, trackberry, clickety-clackberry rumble and ramble in blackberry bramble billions of berries for blackberry jamble"

we made a crisp following a gluten free recipe i found online. i used less sugar than called for and i used coconut sugar (a recent find at our discount grocery) and it is still just way too sweet for my taste buds! most of it is still sitting in the fridge.

the next day we made blackberry sorbet and it was a much bigger hit! the kids loved being a part of the process but especially enjoyed the reward at the end of a long wait!

yes, i am crazy enough to serve my children sorbet in wine glasses.

mostly we just enjoy having fresh berries around to munch on. if we had more, i would make some jam though. my grandmother used to make blackberry jam...mmm-mmm!

hope you are enjoying the fruits of the season, too!