Don't forget to get cash.
Don't forget to stop at the bank once you've forgotten to get cash.
Don't forget your check book if you're going to forget the cash.
Don't take a three year-old.
If you do take aforementioned three year-old, don't mention that the place you're going after picking berries is the beach.
We made an abortive attempt to pick berries yesterday at Bee Natural Farm in Baldwin County. I was interested in seeing Bee Natural for the first time, since it's the only CSA (farm doing Community Supported Agriculture) in the area. It was fun to look at, with lots of intensive beds, berry bushes, and an orchard. However, circumstances did not permit a leisurely look around. We had been picking - make that I had been picking - for all of ten minutes when my daughter declared that she was "going to the car" and stalked off through the field. She had been so distracted and uncooperative that I ended up just putting my half-pound of berries down in the shed so the other family picking at the time could claim them.
A note for the uninitiated: ever wonder why blueberries are so expensive? It will only take you ten minutes of picking to figure that out. Blueberries are really small, and it takes a whole lot of them to make even a pound (unlike strawberry picking, which goes pretty quickly). I believe there are machines for large commercial operations, but at a small farm picking blueberries is labor intensive.
If you're going blueberry picking at Bee Natural, the going rate this year is $2.25/lb, and you need to come prepared with either a checkbook or close to the correct amount of money, as there is no way to make change. Buckets and bags are supplied.
In a happy footnote to our berry picking misadventure, three days later we attended a playmate’s birthday party where blueberry pie was on the menu. The berries had been picked the day before, at Bee Natural. The pie was delicious!