"Pop Goes the Garden" is an episode of Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures.
Summary
Blueberry accidentally plants corn seeds instead of flowers when she gets the wrong package from a seed company. While she tries to deal with the mistake, Strawberry tries to fix a flawed recipe.
Episode Review
Blueberry is watering her new plant daisies, according to package she is reading. Just then Strawberry came by and check her daisies and to get her order book called "The Mighty Muffin Cookbook, Big Recipes for Bitty Bakers".
Strawberry tries a recipe of corn muffins. She measures the ingredients carefully, but shortly after she puts the dough in the oven - it starts shaking and making loud noises. The other girls hear the noises and rush to the cafe. Then the oven opens, and a thick yellow paste is sprayed all over the cafe. Strawberry's friends help her clean. Strawberry wonders how could the baking go wrong. Blueberry says the most likely explanation is that Strawberry must have made a mistake somewhere along the line. Strawberry is skeptical, certain that she followed the directions to the letter, but decides to try again, and double-check everything.
Checking the daisies she ordered sometime back, Blueberry thinks she happened to see something wrong but she chooses to go check on Strawberry after she hears loud noise at her Cafe - again. Everyone else has come to see what the problem is and they find Strawberry hiding behind a knocked over table. She explains how strange her oven has been acting, although this time she has only tried to make one muffin instead of a whole pan, and it just exploded. This time there is less mess, though. Plum jokes about it, suggesting names like "Muffin surprise" or "Muffin explosion".
While considering it to be a minor issue, Strawberry says that this time she was very careful to follow the directions. She ponders if maybe the book is wrong. Blueberry believes it is simply her own fault and refuses to believe that the cook book could be wrong. Strawberry says she will give it one more try, and if it still does not work - she will adjust the recipe based on her cooking experience.
Blueberry leaves to check on her daisies again as the others join her. While the daisies look strange, they don't understand why. So they go to ask Berrykin Bloom, who informs them that she didn't plant flowers, but corn. While Blueberry keeps insisting that they have to be daisies, Strawberry tries to tell her that it is possible that it was a mistake and mentions how she wrote to the author of her cook book. When she revealed what had happened, suggesting there is a mistake about the baking soda, he sent a letter back while admitting he accidentally messed up when writing down the recipe: the quantity of baking soda indeed should have been one tablespoon, not one cup. So he plans to reissue the book and he's even giving her a special signed copy of it. Strawberry says that she used the corrected recipe, and the muffins came perfectly. Even if Blueberry did everything right it can still be wrong, and with that bit of advice Strawberry leaves to get back to baking.
However, Blueberry remains doubtful.
Later on she attempts to speak to someone who sold her the seeds but finds it too hard to understand the man on the phone. He confirms that she did order corn, but she keeps trying to explain that she had meant to order daisies. By the time she gives up, Blueberry happens to see just how big the corn has gotten and she calls the man again. He seems to have realized that she had been given the wrong pack, so they offer to give her a year's worth of daisies to make up for it. While this is good to know, they still need to figure out what to do with the massive corn that's begun to wreak havoc.
Luckily nobody was injured and the following morning, Strawberry has a meeting and everyone tries to suggest an idea on how to rid of it. Orange mentions they should just pop it, while Raspberry suggests that they hold a popcorn party. Everyone likes this idea until Blueberry adds that the corn is way too big for that and the explosions would be too big as well. So then Raspberry attempts to make a brand new idea by saying that they should dig up the remains of the corn so that no more will grow there again.
With some rope, everyone begins to pull and pull on the corn. But when they stop to try to determine where to take them, one of the ears of corns suddenly rolls down a hill into a nearby cave with Strawberry and Blueberry trying to stop it - being yanked down with it.
Inside the lower-ground cave, the two girls notice smoke surrounding them and Blueberry informs Strawberry that they must be in an underground hot spring and they attempt to call for help while the others try to find them. So far with no luck.
Some hours later, the girls are still warm but now feel hungry. Blueberry mentions never having read about this sort of situation and Strawberry tells her they'll need to improvise instead. Such as using the corn for ladders until seeing how slippery it has become from all the steam. Blueberry then points out that maybe they could eat the corn, but she isn't too sure they would like raw corn. So they pick each little piece off of the cob and place it onto the steam so that it turns into popcorn.
The girls resume looking for them but still cannot find any sign of them until Raspberry comments they should try to look in places that make no sense, since they already looked in all the places that did.
Meanwhile, Blueberry mentions they can pop all of the pop corn in order to escape the cavern while the girls resume eating and when they get full they build a stack of corn on top of the steam vent, then hide until it begins to pop and lift them right back up to get to the others. This has also helped everyone else have an easier time carrying the corn while Strawberry leads them along the path and sings.
Soon the party takes place as she continues to sing and the episode soon ends.
Quotes
- Blueberry: It must've been something I did to the daisy seeds. Too much water, or too little water. Or too much sun or something.
- Berrykin Bloom: Oh my. You did everything right. Best crop of corn I've seen. Bet you'd be a natural with squash.
Lessons
Being an orderly girl who believes everything to be correct and right, Blueberry refuses to believe that even the company she ordered from could have made a simple mistake, more or less being told a book did the same thing. She learns that not everything or everyone is perfect and you should try to fix the situation instead of denying it.
Trivia
- While Blueberry is on the phone, a magazine with Strawberry on the front can be seen.
- Kadiebug and Sadiebug are seen briefly at the final scene. This is their first appearance in the show until their formal introduction in "Strawberry's House Pest".
Goofs
- The pile of corn Strawberry and Blueberry used to escape looked to be way more than what a single cob of corn could have produced.