Going on a Berry Hunt

We're going on a BERRY HUNT!

We're going to pick some big ones!

What a beautiful day!

We are excited!

What would be better than to go on a berry hunt in the beautiful sunshine and crisp air foraging through the bushes to find bursts of bright berries sparkling like rubies in the earth. Then sink your teeth into a fresh strawberry and have the delicious juice melt in your mouth. Then why not go on a berry hunt with your family? If you are lucky enough to be an avid gardener you can make a game of it in the yard at home, if not don't despair you can visit a local berry farm and collect a bucketful of nature's treasures to eat.

It seems we have little berry monsters in the house that inhale any sort of berry by the punnet. So we decided to plant some berry bushes to not only cut down on grocery costs but also pick our own fresh, delicious berries. When our bushes were still maturing we visited local berry farms and the children loved searching and picking berries to eat and cook with. We happily support our local farms and the family experience is relaxing and fun together as you walk through the farm in your gumboots with a bucket and search for ripe berries to pick (and eat)!

We have made it into a much-beloved game and family tradition where we get ready with our gumboots, hat, and bucket. We sing our version of going on a bear hunt with "Going on a berry hunt" as we search and pretend to wade through obstacles then get chased by a berry monster back home. This is often happily played by our 3-year-old, who sits eating berries until we find her in her garden teepee and chases us back home with strawberry smeared across her cheeks and dribbling out of her laughing mouth.

If you would like to play along at home you can make up your variation of obstacles or use the ones we do:

We're going on a BERRY HUNT!

We're going to pick some big ones!

What a beautiful day!

We are so excited!

Uh-Oh!

A snail!

A slimy, slimy snail.

We can't go over it. We can't go under it.

Oh no!

We've got to go past it!

Squelch! Squelch! Squelch! Squelch!

CHORUS

Uh-Oh!

Rocks!

Big heavy rocks.

We can't go over them. We can't go under them.

Oh no!

We've got to go through them!

Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!

CHORUS

Uh-Oh!

River!

A winding river hose.

We can't go over it. We can't go under it.

Oh no!

We've got to go through it!

Splish-splash! Splish-Splash!

CHORUS

Uh-Oh!

Weeds!

Tall, spiky weeds.

We can't go over them. We can't go under them.

Oh no!

We've got to go through them!

Swishy-swashy! Swishy-Swashy!

CHORUS

Uh-Oh!

A teepee!

A tall, dark teepee.

We can't go over it. We can't go under it.

Oh no!

We've got to go through it!

Tip-toe! Tip-toe! Tip-toe! Tip-toe!

WHAT’S THAT!

One wet sticky nose! Two big slimy claws! Two big goggly eyes! IT’S A BERRY MONSTER!

Quick!

Back through the teepee! Tiptoe! Tiptoe! Tiptoe!

Back through the spiky weeds! Swishy-swashy! Swishy-Swashy!

Back through the winding river! Splish-splash! Splish-Splash!

Back through the heavy rocks! Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!

Back through the slimy snails! Squelch! Squelch!

Get to our front door.

Open the door.

Up the stairs

Oh no!

We forgot to shut the door.

Back downstairs.

Shut the door.

Back upstairs.

Into the bedroom.

Into the bed.

Under the covers.

I’m not going on a BERRY HUNT again.

The kids take turns to make up new obstacles when they want a challenge or to use their imagination and create them for us to go through. They lean planks of wood for us to balance on and pile up rocks to crunch through or make a tunnel out of chairs and blankets for us to crawl through. The sky is the limit. Of course along the way we are searching for berries and talk about if they are ripe enough to pick or we need to be patient and give them a little longer growing time. About half of the berries don't make it into our bucket because they are so scrumptious it's hard not to just eat them all straight away. But the ones that do we cut up for fruit salad or have on pancakes. The girls have their special kid-safe knives and help cut them up in the kitchen to prepare a meal. They can see first hand the farm/garden-grown-to-table experience.

This is one of our favorite activities as a family and helps connect to nature. Whether you have your berries growing in your garden (you may be inspired to do some planting now) or visit a local berry farm this is a beautiful experience and very cost-effective. They charge by the bucket at a farm so it's much cheaper than the shops as well as a lovely family memory together. It helped our kids to understand and appreciate where their food comes from and to see one of the reasons it is important to care for the plants.

Are you going on a BERRY HUNT today?