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Scott and Amy Turner
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Scott and Amy Turner
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U-Pick Details
U-pick organic blueberries: $2.60/pound, in 2009 and 2010. 2011: TBD.We have a history of selling out blueberries quickly on days we're open. We've tried to ensure a better supply by being open only half days and two times a week. For 2011: It's a crazy-late season. We'll do our best to be generous with opening times, but balanced with reasonably generously loaded bushes. Anyway, on the schedule: Keep checking back.
The fields can be a relaxing place to be if you are prepared to take your time and enjoy!
We have buckets you can use for picking, and we provide cardboard boxes in which you can take your berries home. But feel free to bring your own containers (waste not, want not) -- just allow us to weigh them for you first.There is little shade in the field -- that sun helps the berries grow. (For 2011: HA! HA!) But for people, it's good to bring a hat and wear your sunscreen. If you get over hot, you are welcome to come sit in the shade in the blueberry tent, or find some shade at the field borders in our "wildlife habitat" areas.
We have a portable toilet available and drinking water.
This is a farm. You can drive to the field, but there are places in the field where the ground is uneven. Be prepared with shoes and watch your step.
This is a farm. There are insects here, including stinging ones. Occasionally, there are wasps in the bushes. (Though in recent years, this hasn't been a big problem.) Leave them alone. Feel free to show us if you find a wasp nest and we will try to remove it so it doesn't surprise someone else, but some will get missed.
We have cows in our fields also. The cow fences are electric. Please do not touch and monitor your children. Observe the cows from a distance and from outside the fencing.
There are parts of the field (and varieties of berries) that may be off limits for u-pick.
You may certainly snack as you pick and figure out what you like in terms of variety and ripeness. We figure the price per pound based on you enjoying snacking as you pick.
That said, please do pay for what you pick, rather than throwing on the ground unripe berries. In other words, pick carefully. A ripe blueberry is fully blue all the way around to the stem end. Check it before you pick it. Leave the unripe ones for another customer on a later day. Once you pick a berry, we appreciate you putting it in your bucket and paying for it and not throwing it on the ground. With practice, you'll get better at figuring what's ripe!
"High grading" is another issue with u-pick fruit that affects us (and you!) a great deal. High grading is a picking practice in which the picker picks only the biggest and "best" berries, usually the most visible ones from the tops of the plants. Such a picker generally strolls and picks off the tops of bushes, but may also studiously rustle around for only particularly spectacular berries. Such a picker's paid-for fruit is all the same size -- big. And all the same ripeness -- perfectly ripe. In the field, there is a mix of good and great and spectacular -- and small, medium and large -- berries (and some bad ones -- don't pick those.) Please, be fair to us and other pickers and pick a mix of good, great and spectacular fruit and spend time with each bush to pick it and not just "high grade" it. (I realize that if you are the type of person to even read this then you aren't the type of person who would do that. You are responsible and considerate and are one of our favorite pickers. I just had to get that off my chest. Thanks for listening.)
Take care with buckets of picked berries and guard that they don't get tipped. If they get tipped, you don't get to enjoy all that you picked and we don't get paid for them. We advise bringing your full-ish buckets to the tent where we will put them safely in a box in the shade marked with your name.
There can be a lot of waste in u-pick for which we the farmers do not get compensated. We ask that you respect our work to bring you this organic food.
However, (there's always a however!) we are not saying you should feel you have to take blueberries that are bird-pecked or shriveled or that are already lying on the ground.
Please monitor your children in the field. There is a creek on the property in which you are welcome to cool your feet, but it could be a hazard to young children.
Feel free to bring a blanket for a picnic and walk up and down the farm lane.
We're looking forward to hearing from you and seeing you this season!
Thanks for listening and supporting local organic family farms!Directions to the farm
Opening dates and times and picked berries
Links
What we've been doing on the farm
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