fbpx
Select Page

Written by Eliza Phillips Real Time Farms Food Warrior

At Country Pleasures Farm in Middletown, MD, “quality control” is taken very seriously, and to assure such standards, there is a certain unique “golden rule” applied to berry picking. Lori Rice, in a very matter-of-fact way, explained to me that, “The rule is that you’re supposed to eat every third berry.”

She wasn’t kidding. As I filtered through the shoulder-high bushes, searching for perfectly plump, navy-colored berries, I found myself repeatedly distracted by the sound of my fellow “pickers,” and the “ooohs” and “aaaahhhs” emerging as they smacked their lips, their heads tilted ever so slightly back, towards the sky, their eyes closed, and their faces enveloped by blissful deliciousness. This put my careful, measured, no-nonsense approach to the task of finding the “perfect berry” to shame. As Eric retorted, sensing my reluctance to renounce my way of doing it, “you will not know what tastes good until you….taste it.” Seems simple, right?