"Pop Goes the Garden" is an episode of Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures.
Summary
Both Strawberry and Blueberry come across mistakes when Strawberry finds an error in a recipe, and Blueberry gets the wrong seeds from a company she ordered. When Blueberry struggles to accept this could happen, the other girls try to show her ways of improving the situation.
Episode Review
Blueberry is watering her new daisies as Strawberry comes by to check them out and pick up the book, "The Mighty Muffin Cookbook, Big Recipes for Bitty Bakers" she ordered.
After returning home Strawberry decides to make corn muffins and measures out everything carefully. But after she puts the mixture into her oven, it begins to shake and make other loud noises. The berry girls rush to help her, but the yellow paste inside begins to make a mess in the Cafe - leaving everyone to clean up after it. Strawberry wonders how this could have gone wrong when she did what the recipe said, but Blueberry brushes it off as saying she probably made a mistake. While skeptical Strawberry decides to try again and double-checks everything.
Blueberry decides to pay her daisies a visit but in the process she rushes back to the Cafe yet again. This time Strawberry is hidden behind a table she turned on its side, explaining how strange her oven is behaving as of late, despite only trying to make just one muffin this time. It exploded, although there is less mess this time. Plum jokes about it to try to lift the mood, suggesting names like "Muffin surprise" or "Muffin explosion". Strawberry considers the problem to be minor, but she knows she did everything right again. While pondering if the book is wrong, Blueberry quickly states it has to be something she did. Strawberry says she will give it one more try, deciding to adjust the recipe on her own if it should come to that.
Blueberry leaves to check on her daisies again as the others join her. They note how strange the daisies look but are unable to understand why. They decide to ask Berrykin Bloom, who informs them that she didn't plan 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 contacted the author of her cook book and brought up the problems she was having and questioned if it might have been the amount of baking soda used. The author responded and admitted that during the publishing phase, he accidentally wrote the recipe down wrong. The quantity of baking soda should have been one tablespoon, not one cup. So he plans to reissue the book and to make up for the mistake, will be giving her a special, signed copy. As soon as she got it she used the corrected recipe and the muffins came out perfectly fine this time, so even if Blueberry did everything right it can still be wrong. With that bit of advice Strawberry leaves to get back to baking, but 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 some of their experimental corn seeds accidentally got packed into a packet for daisy seeds and she bought it, so they offer to give her a year's worth of daisy seeds to make up for it. While this is good to know, the girls still need to figure out what to do with the massive corn wreaking havoc on them. 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 could cause issues since the seed company is still trying to figure out how to take the bang out of the pop, 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.
Gathering rope, everyone attempts to pluck the corn from the ground but have to quit to try to determine where to put it. Suddenly, one of the ears of corns rolls down a hill into a nearby cave with Strawberry and Blueberry trying to stop it; only to be yanked down with it.
Inside, the two girls notice smoke surrounding them and Blueberry informs Strawberry that they must be in an underground hot spring. They try to call for help and soon the hours start to pass with their cries unnoticed. Eventually they begin to feel hungry and Blueberry mentions she isn't prepared for this type of situation. Strawberry suggests they improve and they try to use the corn for a ladder until realizing how slippery it is from the steam. Blueberry then points out that they could eat the corn, but she isn't too sure they would like raw corn. Remembering the steam, they each pick a kernel off and set it nearby until it pops into popcorn.
The girls are still looking for them when Raspberry suggests they try to check places that do not make sense, since they already checked those that do make sense.
Inspired, Blueberry gets an idea and suggests they pop the kernels on the corn to escape the cavern as they eat. They build a stack of corn on top of the steam vent, then hide until it begins to pop and they use it to lift them right back up to the surface. Happy with the turn of events, the group sings while they carry the corn back on track and out of the way.
In the end they decide to hold a party as Strawberry continues to sing, and the episode concludes.
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.
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- Orange: When somebody in Berry Bitty City needs help, we all help!
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Lessons
As a scholarly type who learns from reading, Blueberry is unable to come to terms that something official could ever possibly make a mistake and continues to believe if has to be the persons fault. But she eventually learns that nobody is perfect, even published content or official business, and instead of denying it, we should try to improve or fix the problem.
Trivia
- While Blueberry is on the phone, a magazine with Strawberry on the front can be seen.
- Kadiebug and Sadiebug cameo at the end of the episode.
- This is their first appearance until their formal introduction in "Strawberry's House Pest".
Goofs
- The pile of corn Strawberry and Blueberry used to escape looked much bigger than just what one cob could have provided.