Saturday morning Em & I got up very early and headed out with our friend Sara to go berry picking. We arrived to the berry patch with the sun still low on the horizon. The crisp morning air, the quite of the country, and the clear blue sky made for an idyllic morning.
The berry plants still had the morning dew on them and we got a bit wet picking our bucketful, but it was sooo worth it!
It took us just about an hour to fill our berry bucket
When Em got bored picking berries she took some photos. I just looked at these this morning and I must say…pretty darn proud of her, these are very nice images:
Our bucket of berries was a whopping 7 bucks. From that I froze 10 pints of berries. Oh, I forgot to mention. This u-pick berry patch was based on the honor system. You pick your berries and then just leave your money in an unlocked box on the table–amazing (forgot to take a photo to share with you).
After the blueberries it was back in the car and down the road to the raspberry patch. Didn’t take as many photos here–it was a LOT of work to find our 4 quarts of berries…they are just starting to ripen. Lots of green berries on the plants, maybe in another week or so. 3 bucks a quart for raspberries…way cheaper than the grocery store and grown close to home–gotta love it! I’ll be making raspberry jam from these.
This was another honor system farm–does anyone else have honor system farms in your area..I’d be really interested in figuring out if it’s just a northern Michigan thing or if other parts of the country have it as well.
On our drive back home we decided to investigate a sign we’ve often passed “Alpaca Farm & Gift Shop, .07 miles”. Ok, we’ll bite….turned down the road and sure enough after .07 miles we found the Alpaca Farm. I have to say these have to be some of the cutest animals. They have fluffy ears and punk rock hair doos. The owner, Maryjane, took us on a personal tour of the farm. We were able to go right into the barns and enclosures. The farm has 35 Alpacas. They are very docile animals and just went about their business while we were walking around. They are sheared each spring and Mary Jane has their fleece spun into yarn–and mighty fine yarn it is. No, I couldn’t resist buying some skeins…it’s so soft and she has the names of the animals they are from on the label–very cool! I bought the most lovely color of grey that was spun from Carmichael, Diego & Frenchee. It’s going to make a gorgeous scarf. You can check out her farm here.
These are two of the guys…very pretty colors. (Yes, that is a llama in the background. The llama protects the alpaca herd from predators) Lovin’ the punk hair.
This little gal was born on Labor Day…she is soo cute.
You can kind of see the fuzzy ears on this one…some have lots of fur on their ears and some not so much.
I was so busy enjoying the farm that I only grabbed these photos. If you ever come up to northern Michigan make sure you stop by the farm and check them out. She has a very nice shop as well that is stocked with sweaters, socks, bun warmers, yarn, and some other items. Well worth the visit.
That was fun! We helped shear alpacas earlier this year. It was interesting but not sure I'd like to do it every year. It was quite a production.
Loved all your pictures. Honestly, the berries look wonderful. I've seen a place a couple miles from me that sell camp wood on the honor system. As poor as northern Michigans economy is, it amazes me still that this works. I'm glad, to say the least!
What a fun day! 🙂 I might have to go to the berry farms with you next year.
The alpacas are SO cute!
Nice job on the pics, Em! 🙂
Sounds like a fun day! Great photos, too. 🙂