One-hundred ninety miles southwest of Phoenix in Somerton, Arizona, next door to Yuma is the Silva’s Farm, where Caroline and I went blackberry picking today. The drive took about three hours, but we got started shortly after 5:30 in the morning so we’d arrive before the heat of the day did. That didn’t actually work out as it took more than two hours to pick the 16 pounds of berries that we left with, and by then, the heat was quickly bearing down. Sneaky us, we actually left with about 17 pounds of blackberries, but the Silvas couldn’t measure what was in our stomachs. The berry vines are thriving in the desert, much to our disbelieving eyes. The patch is nestled within a citrus orchard, and the picking was great. Nothing like a sun-warmed, fat, ripe blackberry picked and eaten on the spot – yum.

We have often been asked if these long drives to pick fruit and vegetables are worth it with exclamations that it must be cheaper to just go around the corner and buy them at the store. Well, here’s the math for you doubters. Frozen organic blackberries cost about $6.88 a pound or $110 for 16 pounds. Fresh organic blackberries from Whole Foods cost $5.99 per 6 ounces or $15.99 per pound for a total of $256 for 16 pounds. Picking the berries ourselves costs $3.50 per pound or $56 for 16 pounds, plus gasoline. We drove 420 miles with a couple of short detours to pick up an ice chest from my mom, coffee, and a stop at an ATM. Our Hyundai gets 32 miles per gallon on the highway; at $3.60 per gallon we spent $47 for gas. Our grand total was $102, and our experience was priceless. For those of you who are still doubtful, you should have seen the fun the ‘other’ kids were having running through the berry patch and yelling back at their parents about the giant berry they found and, oh, how sweet it was.

What the hell was I thinking, pulling up so close to a gas tanker so I could pay attention to my camera as I wanted to shoot a car selfie?

Roadside ruins will always pull me in.

Last stop for air before finishing our drive back home…another grand day out in the beautiful life of John and Caroline.