Going Local Picking Blueberries

 

Blueberries are now ripe and ready for picking at the farm

Every year when I used to visit Vancouver I only had time to see friends and family for lunches and dinners, do a few errands in between and then I had to fly back to Hong Kong.

Now that I'm here I have a lot of time to do some summer activities, like berry picking!

I missed the strawberry season, but now blueberries are ripe and we went to Emma Lea Farms in Delta to pick them.

Blueberry bushes at Emma Lea Farm in Ladner

This farm has been around since 1885 in Ladner. To get there you have to cross an old wooden bridge which is quaint, but can only hold one car at a time.

When we drove there and stopped (because cars were crossing in the opposite direction), a black SUV passed us and my cousin had to honk at them to stop.

The car stopped in its tracks, finally realising what was going on and that we didn't stop for no reason.

And yes, that car went to the same farm as us, and yes they were Chinese...

The farm announced that blueberries were ready to be picked yesterday and we came today, the weather not too hot and a bit of wind, and most importantly we found a parking spot under a tree. We slathered on the sunscreen even though we wore a hat and long sleeves.

To keep things consistent, the farm sells different sized buckets for people to pick berries -- they aren't weighed after. A large bucket is over CAD$50, and I got a medium-sized one that holds 7 litres for CAD$42.

Don't forget to pick blueberries near the ground

We walked out to the fields past where pumpkins were being grown -- for the fall. Then there were several rows of blueberry bushes! We immediately got to work and it wasn't hard to find ripe blueberries. Of course the kids had fun picking and eating them at the same time. They also encountered spiders and learned to leave them alone.

Riper blueberries were in the middle of the row and we kept moving along picking as we went. It was also handy the farm had wagons we could borrow for the kids when they were tired.

It wasn't until we were almost finished filling the larger bucket that we found even bigger blueberries. I bought the second bucket and began picking these bigger berries. In a very short time two of us adults were able to fill it very quickly. It was such a fun thing to do with the kids and wasn't too hot either.

Did I mention the vast majority of the other pickers either spoke Mandarin or Cantonese?

Does this look heart-shaped to you?

In under two hours we picked a lot of blueberries. I put mine into four plastic bags and in the freezer.

Nom nom nom all summer...