The Monteiro Family

This morning the kids and I headed out to Tangerini’s Farm in Millis to pick some blueberries. The weather could not have been better, 75 degrees, low humidity, lots of sunshine. Their website said that blueberries are ready for picking in July and August. I figured going right in the middle of this time frame would mean the blueberries were certain to be ripe but not completely picked over yet. I was a bit off. I’m learning that you really should go right at the beginning of the “you-pick” season to get the best of the crop. It was pretty picked over. BUT, it actually worked out for us as I was really going for the experience and to bring home enough for a batch of muffins and a few to snack on over the next few days. Had there been more and we could have picked more, I’m sure we would have found other things to do with them but both the kids and I were happy with our lot.

When we arrived I put Carter in the ergo and we went exploring the farm. What a nice farm! We met a young lady who works there and she gave us a tour. She showed us all sorts of plants, the CSA pick-up (and gave me info about the fall share which I may buy into), the ice cream shop and store (where she got us a container for our berries), the chickens, rooster, and goats, the little kids’ hay maze and play area, and of course, the blueberry bushes. It was hard to peel Lauren and Carter away from the animals and play area but after playing for a bit, we headed over to the blueberries and started picking.

Most of the berries were pretty small but we sampled a few and they were nice and sweet, not too tart. Lauren quickly got the message that after sampling a FEW we had to put all of the berries we picked into our bucket and pay for them before eating them. Carter on the other hand, didn’t quite get that message. He put one in the bucket for every 5 he ate! He probably ate about a quarter of a cup of blueberries and kept saying, “Mmmmm, yummmy” with each bite! I made sure the girl who rang them up at the end added on a few ounces to make up for what Carter ate in the field! The kids had a blast running up and down the rows of blueberries, picking a few as they went. They also had fun running around the hydrangeas smelling flowers. They burnt off a lot of energy.

On our way back to the store, we stopped and played in the kids area for a little while longer. Carter kept saying, “Hi goats” and, “Hi chickens” and was loving sitting in the tractor. Lauren had a blast chasing the rooster and making friends with the couple of other kids that were there. Inside the store we paid for our blueberries and bought some fresh tomatoes for homemade sauce to go with my homemade meatballs for dinner tonight, a huge zucchini for a zucchini bread, and a huge cucumber. I was tempted to buy a dozen fresh eggs as well but I just bought some the other day at the store so I’ll buy eggs from the farm next time we run out. There is nothing better that fresh produce straight from the farm. We will be going back there quite often.

Here are a few more pictures from the day: