Up early and on the road by 8AM because today was Saskatoon Berry Picking Day. Yippee!!
We drove to over the Malahat with what seemed like 100,000 other people in 99,000 cars, then peeled off the highway and puttered along the side roads to South Island Saskatoons. There were only four or five cars in the lot, so we had the place pretty much to ourselves.
It still feels strange picking farmed Saskatoons. I'm used to having to crawl along the back roads, find a stand of wild bushes, then scramble through the ditch, over a barbed wire fence and pick as fast as you can before you're covered in ticks, covered in mosquito bites or horsefly bites, or you realize the bull is in this field. Now I can wear sandals if I want! The bushes are in somewhat straight rows with mown grass in between.
I don't think it's been an easy year for the farm. The bushes were full of berries, but they were all over the place ripeness-wise. A branch would be full of equal parts red, under-ripe berries and small, shrivelled over-ripe berries. We had to slow down and be selective, only picking the big, plump, sweet and juicy berries. Still, it took less than an hour to fill our buckets, pay a paltry $15 per bucket and find some shade for a picnic lunch.
There were some interesting wildlife treats in and around the berry bushes. We saw several wild brown rabbits hopping in and around the orchard. Renee was scared by a chicken that snuck up on here while she was focused on some low hanging fruit, and as we walked to the car three huge turkeys came out of their pen and started wandering around the parking lot.
They were big birds, indeed. I wonder if the three are already spoken for come Thanksgiving. They seemed fascinated by their own reflection in the side panels of a nearby car.
We left the farm and cruised over to Cowichan Bay to stop at True Grain Bakery and at the ice cream shoppe. No sea lions on the docks this time, but we watched the swallows dart back and forth while we ate our ice cream. Then it was a quick trip home to find refrigerator space for 15 pounds of Saskatoons.