Bill’s Berry Farm

Saturday was the Blueberry Festival at Bill’s Berry Farm, a pick-your-own berries place near our town.

It took us forever to get out the door because: I had to feed Rose and then I realized that the bread was perfectly puffy and ready to go into the oven, so we had to let it bake for half an hour. Then it was lunch time, so we ate. When we finally were all loaded into the car, Jeff looked down and saw a huge neon stain on his shirt. Rose had a poopy explosion all OVER the place—it went all the way through to Jeff’s skin! So I carried Rose back inside by an arm and a leg and changed her clothes/diaper while Jeff changed, rinsed, and soaked his damaged apparel. THEN we finally got back into the car and went to Bill’s Berry Farm. We arrived over an hour after we planned! Whew. And we only have two kids.

We parked in a big field with grass as tall as our car tires. After slathering sunscreen all over the place, we waded through the grass and caught a hayride-shuttle to the festival.

Jay adores tractors. Not that you can tell by this picture. He was a tad overwhelmed when we first got there.

and I hate the way I look wearing sunglasses.  It doesn’t help that I put them right over my normal glasses, I know. [All you fashionable folks have my permission to cringe right... NOW] The good thing about having a cute baby strapped to your front is nobody notices any major fashion faux-pas that you make (or your post-partummy-pooch, for that matter).

Jay learned a new animal word: Alpaca! He actually said it. These little guys were SO cute. They were freshly shaven except for the little pouf of fuzz on their heads.

Alpacas are so little! They were pretty timid so we didn’t get to touch their soft fuzz, but who can blame them? That place was crawling with noisy people.

There were a bunch of little tents and booths set up like a country fair. One of them was selling Alpaca yarn and knitted hats, scarves, and finger puppets. That basket by Steph was full of the fluffiest, fuzziest, softest teddy bears EVER—made of long alpaca hair! I saw the wind blowing that soft fur and I had to go over and stroke it. If I had $50 to spend on a teddy bear…

Have I mentioned how much Jay adores his Aunt Steph? He loves her. There was a so-called petting zoo at the farm, but really it was just 3 or 4 cages with sleeping pigs and other tired-looking farm animals. Jay still loved seeing them, though!

There was a playground with a big ole tractor for kids to climb all over. Jay was in heaven. Oh, and that’s a folk music band on a platform in the background. It made for an extra-quaint atmosphere, with the wailing voices, banjo, and 3-part fiddle harmonies going on in the background.

Chillin’.

We decided that Jay and Rose wouldn’t appreciate picking their own fresh blueberries this year. So we moved on to the next best thing…

Blueberry donuts!

The highlight of the Blueberry Festival had to be the fresh, hot, melt-in-your-mouth blueberry cake donuts. They made them right there in front of our very eyes. The machine was so cool to watch! It was Willy-Wonka-ish as it chugged out the donuts all in a row.

hee hee, I made Jeff take pictures of the donut-making machine because it fascinated me. Plop, sizzle, rotate…

…up, up, and away!  Seriously these donuts were heaven on earth. Jeff got right in line for them when we arrived, and good thing too—by the time we got our donuts, the line was twisting away into the distance. [side note—do you see the donuteer’s apron? It says “Fresh Produce and Fruity Fun.” I don’t know which of those categories the donuts fall under, but who cares? They are yummy. That’s enough for me.]

We all sat under a tree in the grass and feasted on fresh blueberry donuts. They only make them 8 times a year at their special festival events (I made sure to ask). We decided that’s probably a good thing for our health.

Rose watched enviously as we indulged in the warm, sweet, melt-in-your-mouth decadence. I got sugar in her hair. I’m so glad I ran 7 1/2 miles that morning—it made the donut-consumption much more…justifiable? We bought a 1-dozen bag of the donuts. We left the farm with only 4 donuts. By that evening, there were zero donuts left. Hopefully our hearts can pump away all that cholesterol before the next Bill’s festival, because you can be sure that we’ll be back in line for more fresh blueberry donuts!