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Perhaps you get the idea. I made a plan to go blueberry picking with a friend on Sunday, and we rolled my sister and another friend into the fun.

We started with blueberries, but didn't stop there. It took just an hour to pick over 35 pounds of blueberries! The bushes were absolutely DRIPPING with fruit:

And there was row upon row of bushes:

I was already unsure what the heck I was going to do with the fruit, but the rest of my party was all fired up and wanted to pick MORE. So, we drove a bit and stopped at a place that had both raspberries and marionberries and picked.. a lot more fruit.

SO  much more. The red are raspberries, the darker are marionberries. I think those might be specific to the Pacific Northwest - I'd never heard of them before I moved here, and it makes sense that they may not ship well. They only really should be picked when they're absolutely falling off the bush, and they are rather soft and very juicy. I really like the flavor - sweet and complex. It kind of reminds me of wine.

They look a lot like a blackberry, I guess, but I think marionberries are juicier and their form is a bit bigger and more oblong. I tried to get a picture of one in the wild, so to speak, but it's blurry. It was a nice day, though. (That's a field of raspberry canes in the background.)

By the time we were done with these berries, we were DONE. It took a lot longer to gather these and we were pretty tired. And my freezer is now absolutely jammed with berries! Stay tuned for Usage Reports.