Long-time readers will be aware that our movie-star neighbor loves to harvest Autumn Olive berries, which he freezes for the winter and also turns into delicious fruit leather.  His farm is overrun with the invasive bush, so he only has to walk a few feet from his door to pick, but that picking can be time-consuming.  So this year, our neighbor developed the Berry Apron, a DIY picking tool to make his harvests even easier.  You can follow along at home.

The first step is to take a length of PVC pipe like you'd use for quick hoops and thread a rope through it.  It's even better if the pipe has already been used for quick hoops and has developed a bend.  Using this bend (or what you envision the bend would be) as a guide, sew a channel into an old sheet (the same way you'd make the top of a curtain fit over a curtain rod), then push the pipe (with its embedded rope) through.  Tie the ends of the rope together to pull the pipe into a solid curve, then make a hole at the peak of the pipe's curve to attach another rope, which will go around your neck.  Finally, use a bungee cord to secure the Berry Apron around your back, and you're ready to pick.

The great thing about the Berry Apron, my neighbor reports, is that it lets you pick with both hands at once without worrying about channeling the berries into a bucket.  He and Nellie (pictured above) plucked about two gallons of Autumn Olive berries into their Berry Aprons in about half an hour, and he could envision using the same aprons with highbush blueberries or any other non-thorny bush berry.

I'll be curious to hear if anyone else tries the Berry Apron and streamlines the process.  Our neighbor was already thinking that version 2.0 might be made with a screen instead of cloth, so bugs and dirt fall through.  Any other suggestions to make this good idea even better?