When I was a kid, my parents used to cram all of us kids (four girls and a lone boy) into a van and we would drive across the United States. We lived in Spain full-time, and so every three years  we would fly back to New York and spend our summer break driving everywhere in the States to visit friends and family until we reached California. At that point, we would hop a flight back to Spain.

My favourite part would come whenever my mom spotted a sign that read “U-Pick Berries”. As soon as she saw that sign, she would become incredibly excited. Her anticipation would spread to us kids until we managed to convince my dad, the long-haul driver, to pull over. We would scavenge through the van and find some appropriate containers to fill with berries, and off we went! We usually never stopped for long, but we would have enough to feed us fresh and delicious berries for the rest of the day in the car. All of us would have stained fingers and mouths when we finally pulled into a hotel parking lot for the night.

Now that I’m an adult, I am so thankful for my mom’s love of berry-picking. I venture out to the u-pick farms at least once per year to fill my buckets and enjoy the sunshine. There’s something about doing activities that I loved as a child that just makes them that much better. This year, I went during raspberry season with my good friend, Kim.

What makes this year different, is that I actually was able to use my treasured berries for my catering business. Those beautiful red, plump fruits became decadent raspberry-nutmeg pies that would be enjoyed by my very own clients! It was a great experience to pick under the hot sun, come back to my kitchen (air conditioned, thankfully) to make pie crust from scratch, and to finally add those beautiful raspberries.

On my next entry, I’ll have a fabulous recipe for all of you pie fanatics out there.