Blueberry Harvest

Well, last year we had a bumper crop of blueberries. In fact, if you ask anyone around they would say that there was an abundance of every type of fruit last year. My brother, Bryan, told me a few years ago that when a plant gives out so much energy that the next year they pull back and store their energy a bit.

I guess Bryan's right. This year's crop looks like it will be less fruit than we had last year. We were hoping for another bumper crop, but it seems that we'll have a short crop this year. I guess it just makes life a little sweeter when you know you have to enjoy today's bounty while it's here. The picture above is a Bluecrop variety and shows some of the pretty blues (and greens) on the plant right now.

Closed on Friday, June 10

Just in case you're thinking about coming to pick blueberries, I wanted to let you know that we're closing tomorrow. Since we've been picking all week, the blue ones are about picked off and the berries need a few days of sun.

We've picked the Duke variety this morning, the leading berries of the Bluecrop and the blue ones from the Collins variety. Even the Bluejay variety got picked this morning.

I'm thinking our hours will need to change to Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, 7:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Give us a call before heading out, just to make sure that they're turning blue.

The raspberries are looking great, by the way. If you're interested in picking raspberries, now is the time for picking! They'll be gone by the last week of June.

Blue On the Way!

Well, Les and I walked out in the bottom pasture today and noticed that the Duke variety of blueberries is beginning to ripen. The berries are big and turning blue. They just need a few days of sunshine to make them sweet and deep blue.

Les wants to open on Saturday, June 4, 7:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and will be busy putting up the sign at the intersection of Highway 412 West and Harmon Road. A smaller sign will be placed at the intersection of Harmon and Wildcat Creek.

Raspberries are also ripe right now. I picked two gallons yesterday with my Mom's help, so I have some to sell, some to eat and plenty more are ripening right now! I can't wait for school to be out!

Starting the Season - June 6, 2011

As school ends with final exams given, I begin to look forward to sunshine, a blueberry harvest and time out of doors! I'm sure everyone is looking forward to sunshine with the recent rainy season that we've been through.

Several people have called the house asking if we would have a crop this year. Luckily, the record snow of 24 inches didn't hurt the berries at all. The record levels of rain we've gotten seem to have only increased the size of the berries. They're looking big, of good size and the Blueray variety are beginning to look fairly blue.

Our red raspberries just began to ripen this last weekend and I've picked about a gallon of raspberries and made raspberry bread, raspberry pie and a raspberry crisp is on my agenda for the evening. However, perhaps you're only interested in blueberries. (Raspberries are $2.50 per pint for pick your own).

We expect the blueberries to begin to ripen with the onset of sunshine. If the sun comes out to stay, we may be open by Monday, June 6th. It really depends on good days of sunshine to make them blue and sweet.

We're keeping the same prices we had last year of $12.00 per gallon - Pick Your Own and $16.00 per gallon pre-picked blueberries. See you soon!

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.

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.