SOMETHING SATURDAYS
  • The Blog
  • Travel
  • Index
  • About

Wild Blueberry Picking Saturday

6/9/2016

1 Comment

 
Over the Labour Day weekend, we were back in Newfoundland for our second Newfoundland Wedding Weekend of the summer! This time, we stayed on the Avalon Peninsula and, other than wedding festivities, mostly hung out at the cabin in Ocean Pond where Luke had his first Newfoundland blueberry picking experience.
Picture
On Thursday evening, we hopped on a plane and landed in St. John's just after midnight. Our Friday morning was fairly relaxed; we enjoyed a casual lunch at Mary Brown's (we had to...) and a stop at a new Icelandic Bakery, before visiting Nanny Dawe and heading out to Ocean Pond for some time in the great outdoors.

Unfortunately the weather over the weekend wasn't the best. It hovered around 14 C and was overcast for most of Saturday and Sunday. We may not have been inspired to swim or water ski, but on Saturday we were inspired to walk along the old railway tracks in search of some blueberries.
Picture
Some blueberry facts (found here and here):
- There are two types of blueberries: "lowbush" and "highbush". "Lowbush" means that they are grown in the wild and "highbush" are cultivated berries that were developed from wild blueberries in the early 20th century.
- Canada is the world's largest producer of lowbush blueberries, which are native to Eastern North America (including the island of Newfoundland!)
- Highbush berries are harvested earlier than lowbush, are larger, and are less perishable.
- North America accounts for 90% of the world's blueberry crops

Now, back to Saturday. We weren't sure what to expect from our lowbush berries, but luckily we showed up at the perfect time in the year and had some super berry pickers with us in the form of Elizabeth's mom and our friend, Amy, who had a keen eye for good berries.
Picture
We picked, and picked, and picked, and picked. 2+ hours later, we wandered back to the cabin with a substantial haul. We all had a great time and thorough enjoyed berry picking. Well, except for that time Luke stood on an ant hill...

​After cleaning the blueberries - not actually cleaning with water, just removing any stems/leaves/spiders that made their way into our buckets - it was time to make something of these berries. Elizabeth's mom made Blueberry Muffins and a Blueberry Buckle (coffee cake).
Picture
We were then joined by a couple more friends for an evening of games at the cabin, where we enjoyed an obscene amount of food including our delicious blueberry treats.

The next day, the two of us bid farewell to Ocean Pond and headed off to the wedding of our friends Meghan and Garrett! A personal wedding ceremony in a picturesque location overlooking the ocean was followed by a fun reception back in St. John's. Obviously we forgot to take photos at the right times, but we did sneak in a selfie while we were waiting for a cab at 1 am, holding our box of free pizza. 
Picture
Monday, our last day in Newfoundland was relaxing, and we managed to spend more time with family before heading off to the airport. 

We had a great, but quick, trip back to Newfoundland and we are so glad we spent so much time with family and friends... and also that we picked so many blueberries. We carted quite a few of them back to Toronto with us. 

Here are some more photos of our time back on the island:
(SLIDESHOW)
This time last year we were sea kayaking, the year before we were exploring St. John's on a Doors Open Day, and in 2013 we took a long weekend trip to Montreal!
1 Comment
Kelly
13/9/2016 11:39:04 pm

This sounds like such a great day!

xx Kelly
<a href="http://www.sparklesandshoes.com/">Sparkles and Shoes</a>

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    About Us

    Picture
    We're Elizabeth and Luke.
    Join us on our weekly Something Saturday adventures, where we explore somewhere new or try something new! 
    ​
    Read more about us here.

    Follow along

    BLOGLOVIN'
    BY E-MAIL
    RSS FEED

    Categories

    All
    Art
    Asia
    Australia
    Beach
    Canada
    Cheese
    City Break
    Cuba
    Culture
    Curacao
    Diy
    Dogs
    Food
    France
    Games
    Hiking
    History
    Hong Kong
    Ireland
    Mexico
    Music
    Nature
    Newfoundland
    Ontario
    Ottawa
    Sport
    Sports
    St. John's
    Subway Saturday
    Toronto
    Uk
    United States
    USA

    Archives

    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.