Opening Day Report

We opened EARLY on Saturday, August 15, 2009. First pickers arrived under the cover of darkness and hit the fields at 5:50 am! Heard they used flashlights to pick until the sun was a up, a half hour or so later. As crazy as that seems, I think it was even crazier to be picking at mid day. Felt like death valley (if death valley was loaded with blueberries) out there. I wasn't picking but was sharing in the experience working on repairing the greenhouse, so I guess I am labeled as crazy, too.

First group of 3 pickers (Joni Barron et al.) to hit the scales picked 30 lbs or so in an hour. Tim Barney in his wife (also of Chassell) and another companion registered the biggest load at 76 lbs. Can't really say that they were the top group because others list their harvest individually. Nevertheless, any amount reported in 10s of lbs is a lot of berries!

Only one casuality to report, a picker ran into a bald-face wasp nest. The bush with the nest is loaded with berries, so I haven't sprayed it, just cordened it off and awaiting a cool night, when the wasps are more sluggish, and will snip it off and toss somewhere in the woods.

Pigs report a lot of people stopping to gander at them, prompting them to ask, "Haven't these people seen a pig before?" Well I explained to them that they are attractive pigs, especially the gilt (female) who sports near perfect natural (birth spots) eyeshadow on both eyes. Sheep and llamas were miserable in the heat. They are looking forward to the cooler weather, too.

I toured the fields this a.m. and amazed at how clean it looks, completely litter free. Still lots of berries, but you will have to be more "surgical" in your picking, as all the big clumps of ripe berries were harvested by those who showed on opening day, but that is why they come then, eh.