Bushel Basket of Biringer Berries

 A day of transition was scheduled for Thursday, June26; we would wave goodbye to Greg and Glenda in the bright morning after several marvelous days as they departed for their overnight stay booked at the scenic Snoqualmie Falls before they flew back to Texas. Just after Greg and Glenda drove off down my driveway, I folded down the backseats in the 4Runner and loaded up with Sue, Kaileen and Grant for a 100 mile trip south to pay a lunchtime visit to Grandpa Al, my 94 year old father. Grant's idea and request.

Once we got to Tumwater, I ordered pizza for 11; the four of us down from The Pilchuck, we would rendezvous with Inga and Sean up from Portland, and we were expecting my nephew Brian, his wife Amy and their two young girls to join us all for a pizza party at Grandpa Al's senior residence. We enjoyed our pizza party in the Green Room reserved for Grandpa's guests that afternoon, catching up on everyone's goings-ons. 

Brian had to get back to work, Grandpa had a dental appointment and my sister Sheri came to get him at 3, drawing the party to an end. Inga and Sean continued on north to The Pilchuck for a complete Suneson gathering of us elder folks, our kids and their partners. This is what I had long dreamed of having happen at our place on The Pilchuck. I was thrilled to have the whole family under my green gabled roof.     

Berry Pickers
Sean, Inga, Sue, Grant & Kaileen

We actually had a plan in the morning. 

We would venture out under pewter skies and light mist to hunt red berries. Just south of Arlington is Biringer Farms, a U-Pick berry place that offered all the strawberries and raspberries you could want - and more.

Our ride into the berry fields

We grabbed our picking baskets lined with a shallow cardboard box and stepped up to find a seat on the trailer and said to the tractor driver, "Start your engine and bring me to your best, ripest berry patch!" 

With a putter of the diesel engine and shift of the gears, we were on our way to fresh sweetness. Oh what a glorious ride.

The excitement builds
Sue points out the area of sweetest strawberries to Inga

Our tractor driver came to a stop at the edge of the farm, letting us know some of the best ones were right here, hiding underneath those green, mist-moistened leaves, low to the ground. 

We knew what to do.

Sean leans into his task
lending his expert eye to selection of only the finest strawberries

Of course, nobody knew better than Sean. Sean with years of berry and produce expertise from years in the produce department at Fred Meyer's flagship grocery store in Portland, Oregon, would not stoop to pick just any red strawberry, it had to be up to his high standards. Sean picked us some dang good strawberries that morning.

Inga and Sean working the raspberry rows after loading up on strawberries 

Grant displays one of those 'berry eatin' grins' that one gets as one constantly tastes from the vine to be certain that this is a nice and sweet berry maker of a plant. We all did a lot of sampling on our way through the berry patch that cool morning.

Sue with a handful of juicy sweets - one for the basket & two for the tummy

A peck of rootin' tootin' red raspberries

Back at the Biringer Barn, we weighed our harvest, at least the boxes full of berries. It's a good little 'gimme thing' that the farm doesn't weigh us before and after our trip into their fields.

Our total for a quick morning's work:

    Strawberries 6.17 lbs @ $4.75 per lb

    Raspberries  4.77 lbs @ $6.50 per lb.

Now, what would we choose to do with our 11pounds of fresh berries?

Like I said at the top, we had a plan.

Inga was having a birthday celebration tomorrow, and there was not even any discussion of options as to how that birthday celebration would happen. For Inga it is always an angel food cake. And what should one put atop an angel food cake?

    Candles!

    Yes, of course. But what else besides candles?

    Berries!

    Yes, of course. Lots and lots of fresh berries.

And we now have some nice birthday berries to complement the homemade angel food cake ready to be baked.

Thus, it was a fruitful morning among the berry patch at Biringer Farms.