Well, it's taken awhile for summer to show up around here, but things are looking warmer and sunnier. School wraps up, family vacation is on the horizon, summer jobs begin, everybody kneels in the dirt and picks berries . . . . Okay, maybe that last one's not on your summer to-do list, but it should be.
You already know that one of the great things about where we live is how close we are to a bounty of all kinds of fresh produce growing all over the place, and right about now the strawberries are ripe for the pickin'. And soon there'll be raspberries, blueberries, and all kinds of other goodies to pluck at farms all around Puget Sound.
Here's a good place to start: Berry season: 9 Seattle-area U-pick berry farms to check out, from the website Seattle's Child, runs down berry farms up north, on the Eastside, and around the South Sound. (They point out up top that the frost season ran longer than usual this year, so some berry harvests will be later this summer.)
That article highlights the iconic Biringer Farm in Arlington, where you're normally able to pick strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and tayberries -- that's a combination of a raspberry and a blackberry. You have to love those beautiful ripe strawberries with the bright red color all the way through, not a sad white center like so many store-bought strawberries. A bargain at $4 a pound! Check their website before you go, though, just to be sure you can pick the kind of berries you're craving.
Berry picking seems to be especially fun for the kiddos, which is why the other good list of U-pick farms is from a kid-oriented website, TinyBeans. Their web article is Berry Best: 10 Farms for U-pick Strawberries (& More.) Besides Bringer Farms, this list also showcases Swans Trail Farms in Snohomish, where your family can not only pick berries, but also get lost in the hay maze, and spend some time with their farm animals.
Also on that list: Picha's Berry Farm in Puyallup, Harvold Berry Farm in Carnation, which they call "an old-fashioned, straight-forward u-pick experience," Bolles Organic Berry Farm in Monroe, where the berries are grown in pesticide-free soil, and then there's Duris Farm in Puyallup for a change of pace -- the emphasis here is on cucumbers. Trust me, fresh-picked cukes right off the farm beat store bought any time.
The unpredictable spring weather we've had may affect conditions at all of these farms, so check ahead before you go. Don't forget your sunscreen and your floppy hat!