u-pick, u-eat

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My recent visit to a 'u-pick' berry farm has given me a new found appreciation for those who harvest our fruit. Two weekends ago, well stocked with potato salad, drinking water, hats, sunscreen and a plethora of empty yogurt containers, 3 friends and I hopped in a car and made our way to berry picking country. Driediger Farms in Langley is about a 50 minute drive from Vancouver…..just enough time to decompress from the city and slow to a country pace (or at least try to) .

We were on a quest for raspberries. After arriving at the farm (with mapquest directions in hand) we made our way to the u-pick check in, where all of our empty containers were weighed and recorded with a piece of tape. After making our way to the assigned 'u-pick' area, we divided ourselves amongst the many tall rows of fresh raspberry bushes and began to individually collect our loot. As I gathered (and tasted) the luscious fruit, I couldn’t help but think that they would be wise to weigh the pickers as well. At $1.60 per pound, surely folks like me were literally eating into their profits? Not having been to a u-pick since I was a kid, I found the activity to be relaxing and quite meditative though, despite my keen efforts to focus and forage efficiently, it really was slow going. Never again will I look at a basket of picked fruit at a stand or in a store and think that it is too expensive. Gathering fruit by hand is incredibly time consuming, as are most tasks related to food production. But it was a fun day out and the rewards were sweet, as I was reminded each day for the next week when I would open my fridge and help myself to fresh, sweet, juicy, perfect raspberries.