Bushes are still loaded, 90% ripe

Well, I think it is safe to say that we had a bumper crop this year, despite the lack of rain this summer. The wet fall and spring must have been enough. We still have a lot of berries. Pickers have dwindled noticeably. Phone barely rings (which we don't mind). We should have picking thru the Labor day weekend.

Some honey still available, too.

The ripenin' is faster than the pickin'

The average picker is taking home about 12 lbs of berries (about 2 ice cream pails). Some are harvesting upwares of 20-30 lbs, while many are just getting 5-7 lb. We are seeing many return faces, so I think people are picking when they can.

It appears that the berries are ripening faster than people are picking. We probably should have placed some ads in the paper, but we were afraid to have too many picking and spoiling the fun for the loyal customers/visitors.

We are still lacking rain, when it does come, it may be too late to help the remaining crop. We will remain open now until the berries are sparse. We will NOT be closing/opening off and on, as there are so many berries that there should always be some ripe ones somewhere. We probably won't close until after labor day, unless the berries get picked out.

Happy Picking...

p.s., we have some excellent local honey at the farm. Tim Colling has been mentoring Mike Gierke on raising bees and we have one of his hives out at our farm. We have bottles of Tim's honey for sale at our farm. Mike's bees did not produce enough to off our's for sale this year, but hopefully with an expansion next year we can offer honey, dare we call it "blueberry" honey, next year.

p.s.s., Our kids will be auctioning two pigs at the Houghton County Fair on Saturday, Aug. 23, in the afternoon. They have been fed grain and leftover vegetables (courtesy of World Foods, Houghton). No growth hormones nor antibiotics (besides what they received intially as piglets).

A Lot Still Need to Ripen, Need Rain

These are some pictures I took on the evening of Aug. 13th (Wed.) of some very typical berry quantities on bushes. The ripening status is also typical in that about half of the berries are ripe, but unfortunately the ripe ones and unripe ones are intermingled (probably due to the drought conditions).

We will remain open as long as there are ripe berries to pick in quantities that allow one to fill a gallon bucket in a couple of hours. Due to the quantities of berries on the bushes, we should be able to have picking for a couple of weeks.

Bumper Crop: still more to ripen

By the looks of the buckets of berries being hauled out of the field on Saturday, I would venture to say that we have a bumper crop this year--maybe approaching the yield in 2005. There are still more berries to ripen. Surprisingly, the smaller variety(ies) are still green. The large-berry bushes are at least 50% ripe.

Still could use rain to help with those berries not yet ripe.

Apparently, we are open!

As seems par for the course the last couple of years, I have been out of town the weeks preceding our anticipated opening. Not on purpose, of course, but not very helpful either. To make matters more complicated, my travels have taken me to locales not conducive to communication with the mother farm: no phone and unreliable satellite internet. Before you start accusing me of sneaking off to an exotic fishing place, let me state that although exotic (beringglacier.org), fishing is not part of the trip activities.

Anyways, I am in route home, at an airport, and called to learn that the wife and daughter are womanning the farm and there were already 40 cars of pickers as of 10 am on Saturday, August 9th. The crop is not fully ripe, but in far more abundance than the past two years. I can't wait to get home and see for myself.

Remember, you can pick any time, it is all self serve. Call (906/523-6112) or check the blog first, just in case we have to close due to a lack of ripe berries. We look forward to seeing you.