July 7, 2010

Today we have picked in both the valley patch and up on the hill and there are still plenty of blueberries left to be picked! Tomorrow and Friday we're going to be open from 7 am to 6 pm for anyone who wants to come pick blueberries or get them pre-picked.


Les says that I took a terrible picture of the blackberries shown below. Today 4 1/2 gallons were picked and that about finished what was ripe today. I think we need to plant about 2 acres more of blackberries in order to meet the demand that we have for them. I'm trying to talk Les into selling his cows so we can use that portion of land. (I think I'm fighting a losing battle. He loves having cows to mess with!)

July 5th, 2010

Well, we're getting close to the end of the blueberry season. If we only had 500 people out here to pick the rest of the crop, we might call it done! Needless to say, 500 people didn't show up today. However, with yesterday's article in the paper our business was up a bit and we had a lot of people out to pick blackberries and blueberries.

The raspberries are done for the season and the blueberries will continue for at least this week. Blackberries usually are ready for picking through mid-July, so we probably have another 2 weeks of picking on the blackberries.

Warm Weather

Well, it's hard to believe that we had a cold winter with plenty of snow. Here is a shot of our blueberry shed, gazebo and pool taken from our patio.

A New Sign

Hot and Humid Weather!

We picked in the valley today after picking at the top of the hill yesterday. It's incredible that 95 degrees today feels like 105 degrees. It's much more humid and hot than yesterday. However, we still had customers ready to pick blackberries, blueberries and raspberries. One gal was going to make a blueberry/blackberry pie and then use the remainder for smoothies.

Summer!

Today on the first day of summer, we reached a temp of 94 degrees and a heat index that neared 100. With temperatures moving sky-high, we only had a few people out picking berries today.

Tomorrow we're going to hire a crew to pick part of the field so that the berries won't be falling off the bush from the heat. Hopefully someone will drive up that wants to just buy pre-picked berries instead of standing out in the heat.

June 20, 2010

It's blueberry season in Northwest Arkansas! Several customers told me this past week that I should have a website or a blog that they could follow about picking conditions, times to pick, etc. Luckily, my L.A. daughter is home visiting and helped me set up the design and walk me through the short and easy steps of creating a blog. It's so nice to have a friend to walk you through new experiences.

This season began for us on June 4 and we started picking on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. However, we quickly decided that we would pick every day from 7:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. from Monday through Saturday. There are just so many berries ready to pick!

If you're wondering about the prices - this year our u-pick berries are $12.00 a gallon and the pre-picked gallons are $16.00 per gallon. We really haven't had very many pre-picked, but if you call ahead, you may be able to reserve a gallon or get one without getting out in the sun.

Our raspberries are also ripe but will probably finish within the next week. We sell them for $2.50 per pint for pick your own and $3.00 per pint for pre-picked raspberries. If you're wondering if we have any other crop - it's blackberries. We have just 3 long rows of blackberries so they get picked rather quickly when they ripen. They're the same price as the blueberries - $12.00 per gallon.