Teach your kids to pick the perfect Peach (or Blueberry) The best pick your own around!

Have you ever gone fruit picking? The U-Pick (enter yummy fruit here) is unbelievable here in the Lithia area. Oranges in the winter, Strawberries in the spring, then blueberries and peaches as we head into summer. Living in Florida has some great perks! Do your kids run up and down the rows of fruit with screams of laughter?

 

Peaches

Last year I took my kids to pick peaches and blueberries at two local farms. What a fun time we had! The U Pick (Do you say U Pick, U-pick, You Pick or pick your own?) peaches at Florida Sweeties U Pick Peaches were also the bees knees. So sweet and juicy. It was hard to stop the kids from filling their bellies with such yummy goodness and get them to fill the buckets to take home. Keeping a pocket full of baby wipes was a must! They were so darn juicy!

 

To pick the perfect peach you just use your touch. You want it to be firm to the touch, not rock hard and not squishy. Just a slight give to the flesh! There were lots of low hanging fruit within perfect picking distance for any age!

 

Blueberries

The next morning I woke up and ushered the kids out the door to grab some U Pick blueberries over at Frosty Blue Blueberry Farm here in Lithia.

The berries are so big and sweet we couldn’t resist eating our fill as we picked. My little one kept saying “just one” over and over as she would pop another juicy berry in her mouth. We picked our fill of over 7lbs in just a short amount of time and headed home full to the brim with fruit.

To pick the perfect berry look for that perfect bluish purple color and you can’t go wrong! If you go early in the morning to beat the heat, plan on getting damp with morning dew. The dew is worth it compared to the midday sun for sure! Evenings are a perfect time too now that the days are long (and think gorgeous golden hour light).

 

A few must haves for fruit picking in Florida

• Sunscreen is a definite, plus a hat and sunglasses if the kids will tolerate them
• Sneakers and socks are always good since they will be running through the high grass and the fire ant mounds are everywhere. This is Florida and no matter how hard you try, those buggers are just hard to get rid of.
• Bring water, You might be picking for an hour or better depending how much you eat versus how much goes into your bucket!
• You don’t need to bring buckets unless stated at that particular place. Most places provide buckets at no charge and then bag them for you to bring them home.
• The kids will eat more than their fair share which means sweet sticky goodness all over their faces if they are anything like my kids. Wet wipes go without saying as a mom 😉

The Dessert

What is better than freshly picked fruit? Homemade dessert with said fresh picked fruit!

I knew that cobbler being one of my favorite quick and yummy things to make would be a perfect way to use some of that sweet goodness. I immediately put the kids to work helping in the kitchen to make this incredible dairy free peach and blueberry cobbler. Pair this with some yummy Ben and Jerrys 7 layer coconut ice cream (dairy free as well) and it is a match made in heaven!

Tell me your favorite fresh fruit dessert in the comments!! I need new ideas for this year’s haul! 

 

The momma behind Momma Got Soul Photo and Films, Tampa Bay Family Photographer. I am a wife. I am a mother. I am an artistic storyteller. I stay up late, try to sleep late, and drink lots of coffee and beer (usually in that order, but not always). I grew up in sunny (which means really hot) central Florida, never go to the beach or Disney, but try to hike in the woods as much as I can. I remember a time when I said I would never photograph people, now that’s all I do. I think it started with wanting to explore the world and capture that to share with people. Now I just want to tell people that the real stuff outweighs the fake crap every time -Kelly