‘Tis the season for canning, pickling and - jamming.  Last year my excuse was “I’m pregnant” - and I’ll be damned if I’m using that excuse this year, so I had to suck it up.  Canning and preserving is simply saving my family money with the added bonus of picking fruits and vegetables from organic farms.

So last Saturday I decided to take my four year old to the blueberry farm to pick berries with me.  I didn’t hold out much hope for our success.  Honestly, knowing how much he loves bluberries, I expected him to pick, but not many to end up in the bucket.  Armed in blue shorts, blue shirt and blue shoes, my son and I headed out for our adventure.

I was plesantly surprised!  Sure, he ate about his body weight in blueberries and ended up covered in blue splotches despite my keen efforts by dressing him in blue.  We actually stayed for two and a half hours, and ended up with almost 13 pounds of berries!  I was so proud that he made it that long, and even had actual ripe blueberries in his bucket (and green berries and leaves).  I have a couple amazing shots of him sitting on the ground picking berries into his can.

More importantly, this was a fabulous opportunity to talk about how the blueberries got there in the first place - concepts like pollination of flowers by bees making the berries, birds and bears eating the berries and dispersing the seeds, photosynthesis (and why he shouldn’t take the leaves away from the plant).  I asked him about these concepts today and clearly the message was driven home because he remembers them today.

The best part?  The following morning, we all got to eat blueberry jam from blueberries that the day before had still been on the bush.  A family affair and a child getting to see the entire process of how some of his food gets to the table.

The downside?  Four year old boys are completely enamoured with stinky, messy portable toilets.  We had to go in about six times in the two hours (never knowing which time was a real nature call, or not).

I know in the end it could have gone either way, and ended up disatrous, but the learning opportunity and mother/son bonding was worth the risk in the end.