I recently went to Pitt Meadows to pick my own blueberries with my in-laws! Probably not the best idea during the smokey conditions we had here (especially with my wheeziness), but it was a nice, calming experience. It’s always interesting to see where our food comes from – it gives you a better respect on the process that goes into growing/caring and harvesting of our food.
Blueberries are one of the more easier berries to pick – they basically grow on bushes and you just go in with a bucket and pick as many as you want. Not that I’m an expert berry picker now, but here are some tips from my experience:
1. Go where most people do not.
Stay within bounds of course, but go where not many people are picking – usually at the very back of the farm or in this case on the Eastern area of the parking lot – I was surprised how many people didn’t start off there, but you’ll definitely find larger berries.
2. Bring a bucket.
While they’ll provide you with a harvesting bucket so that you can pick as many as you want and then weigh it on their scale, you’ll need to have something to bring it back in! A bucket is the easiest, but you can also bring a box.
3. Bring a hat, long sleeves and sunscreen.
This kind of goes without saying, but just in case you were wondering, it gets hot and the sun is over you, so you’ll want protection.
4. Bring cash.
I think there’s an ATM machine here, but don’t risk your chances. Bring cash. Berries are cheap – when I went it was $2/lb.
5. Come early.
We arrived just at opening so that we could get more space with less people there and get our first pick.
6. Watch out for bugs.
This is more so for me, but if you’re kind of scared of bugs, you’ll be surrounded by them here. I mean, it’s nature after all. For the most part it was fine, I could comfortably pick a lot of berries without being afraid, but eventually some bees came out and there are spiders everywhere.
