Happy New Year

Most of us start the new year with resolutions to eat healthy but a yummy, warm dessert also helps to brighten those cold days of winter! The above picture is a blueberry gingerbread cake warm from the oven with a dollop of cold vanilla ice cream. My mom makes the recipe in an 9 inch square pan but this version was made in an 8 inch cake pan to look more like a traditional cake. Either way, it’s a great way to use your frozen bluberries.

Blueberry Gingerbread

1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sour milk (to 1 cup milk add 1 tablespoon vinegar)
1 teaspoon baking soda (added to milk)
3 tablespoons molasses
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup blueberries

Cream shortening and sugar; add beaten egg. Combine dry ingredients and alternate with sour milk in which soda has been dissolved. Add molasses and blueberries; mix well. Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon mixture on top. Bake in 9 X 9 pan in 350 degree oven for 50 minutes. Delicious served warm!

Having a Good Time, Wish You Were Here!

2011 has been a great year for blueberries.  We are in the midst of our 5th week of picking so make sure you come out soon for the best berries.  We anticipate having fruit through the end of August but will probably have to close near the end of the month to wait for ripening of our late variety.  Blackberries have been slow to ripen but we have many of them and hope to be picking those yummy berries until the end of August.

Our hats have arrived and are for sale at the screen house for $12 along with canvas bags with our logo on them for $10. Below is a picture of Matt who has been our super blueberry picker for the farm this year.  He was gracious enough to model his hat!

 

We have had so many great customers come out this year but we were so pleased to see Bud and Eli last week who have been coming to the farm from Dover for many years.  They have been married for over 70 years and love to pick blueberries.

Thanks to everyone who has come out to pick their blueberries and blackberries this year at the farm…don’t delay if you haven’t come to pick yet…the season won’t last much longer!

Below are some pictures of our redesigned Screen House which our friend Dennis organized and pulled together.  So many people have commented on it and thought we had built it new this year…nope!  It was just an ugly old building that no one would enter…now it houses a freezer with frozen goodies, our jams and jellies, fresh produce and cookbooks all on a lovely antique farm table. Check it out!

Fantastic Opening Day!

Thanks to everyone who came out today to start the blueberry season with a bang!  Lots of great blueberries and lots of great people!  The fruit is coming in fast with the heat of the past few days so we expect all three fields to be open and going strong by the beginning of next week.  The early fruit crop is the best we have seen in years and we’re sure you’ll be happy with the picking conditions.  Here are a few pictures of opening day.

Happy 4th of July!

Yummy strawberries!  New Hampshire is nearing the end of the strawberry season but there is still time to grab some of these before your 4th of July celebration.  Check out your local farmer’s market or head to a local farm to pick your own.  I picked these at the Monahan Farm in East Kingston and made delicious strawberry and strawberry rhubarb jam for the farm this summer.  Check out the website Pick Your Own. Org for a listing of farms by county or head over to Seacoast Eat Local for additional farm and farmer’s market listings.

The blueberry crop for the coming season is looking great and there are tons of berries forming on the bushes but they are still green.  Hopefully we will be open for picking around the second week in July but in the meantime we are busy trying to keep up with the maintenance of the fields.  One of the new projects we have been working on is to update our screen house adjacent to the check out shack.  When we added the screen house six years ago, out plan was to sell the jams, baked goods, veggies and honey from here as our check out shack was too small to add these items.  However, it was never very inviting and most customers were puzzled as to its purpose.  So we have enlisted the help of our good friend Dennis Johnson who has owned and operated a successful florist business in Boston and is the current owner of Zinnia Cottage  and an Etsy storefront specializing in antique and home decor.  Dennis has a great merchandising background and with his help and guidance we are slowly transforming the screen house into the new fabulous farm store. Here are some of the before and in transition photos.  I’ll post the grand reveal soon.

Finally, we had a special guest who visited us at the farm a few weeks ago.  The fabulous Fifi O’Neill and photographer extraordinaire, Mark Lohman were here taking photos for a future project. We managed to provide a spectacular thunderstorm complete with power outages and 90 degree temperatures but Mark and Fifi persevered and the results were spectacular.  That’s all I can say about their visit but if you get a chance, check out Fifi and Mark’s latest book, the lovely Romantic Prairie Style.    

Fun at the Plant Sale and A New Farm to Visit

We had a great turnout for the plant sale this weekend and sold out of everything except a few blueberry plants.  We plan on having more plants for sale this summer during the picking season.  As a result, we will not be open for the plant sale this Saturday, May 7. Thank you to everyone who came out Saturday and Sunday and braved the black flies!

Last week we paid a visit to a local Alpaca farm in Strafford.  Sometimes you don’t even realize what you have happening in your own town and this was true of our visit to the Green Alpaca located in Crown Point.  The owner, Val and her daughter Annie were so accommodating to our surprise visit and gave us the royal tour.  84 Alpacas and counting, chickens galore, 3 turkeys and 2 sweet donkeys!   Who knew all of this was only 15 minutes away.  Val and her family hope to encourage others to take up Alpaca farming…they even have a yurt on a hill overlooking the farm where you can vacation any time of the year…check them out and check out the Seacoast Eat Local calendar for more fun farm things to do in our area!

Annual Plant Sale and Pruning Tips

We have finally completed pruning all three blueberry fields (almost 6000 plants!) and now we are busy in preparation for the annual blueberry plant sale to be held this Saturday, April 30 ; Sunday, May 1 and if we still have plants May 7.  Hours are 9am to 2pm all three days. This year we will be offering the blueberry plant varieties Blueray, Patriot and the so-so-sweet Jersey.  We will also have Boyne raspberries and Fall Gold raspberries for sale as well as a small selection of peach trees and rhubarb.

It is still not too late for you to prune your own blueberry bushes.  At the farm, we try to complete pruning before the blossoms come out and also before the “dreaded” black fly appears.  We have included two videos below of pruning both small and large bushes which should help you get your own bushes into top shape for blueberry production.  Keep in mind that it is always helpful to give your plants a dose of fertilizer which can be done after the blossoms drop off.  Blueberries are an acid loving plant so an application of 7-7-7 can be sprinkled around the drip line of your bush.  Unfortunately, the birds will be your number 1 pest when the berries ripen so you need to learn to share or purchase a netting system from a garden center.  Don’t forget that blueberry plants are shallow rooted and love water so try and mulch around your plants with sawdust, bark mulch or even pine needles.

Finally, Anne is in the process of putting together a second cookbook for the farm and she would love to hear from any of you that would like to include your own special blueberry recipes.  You can send them through email (info@berryboggfarm.com) or drop a copy of your recipe with your name on it to Berrybogg Farm, 650 Province Rd. , Strafford, NH 03884.  We look forward to hearing from you!

97 Days Until Summer!

The sun was out today, the temperature pushing 45 and there is only about a foot of snow left in the blueberry fields so why not think about summer!  We hope the weather cooperates and we will be able to start pruning the blueberries within the week but you know spring in New England.  In honor of making it through a LONG winter and in anticipation of a great summer, we would like to pass along one of our favorite summer drink recipes : The Blueberry Daiquiri!  The above photo was taken last year around the 4th of July and pictures my mom, our friend Jim Cooney and myself sipping a cool daiquiri….cheers!

Blueberry Daiquiri

1 cup blueberries

1/2 cup rum

1/2 to 3/4 cup of simple syrup or 1/3 cup sugar

3 tablespoons of fresh lime juice or 3 tablespoons of limeade

1 to 2 cups of crushed ice

Blend all ingredients in blender until smooth.  Should provide 4 large servings or 5 smaller ones.

If you choose to use frozen blueberries then lessen the amount of ice to use.  If you use limeade instead of lime juice, you may want to lessen the amount of sugar you use…this is definitely a taste test recipe for the “bartender”.  Experiment with your ingredients until you reach perfection!

Simple Syrup Recipe

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

Combine the sugar and water in a saucepan, bring to a boil, stir until sugar has dissolved, allow to cool before using.

 

 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from Berrybogg Farm!  Today was another great day for being outside so we managed to burn one of our largest piles of old canes.  We were able to accomplish a lot of pruning during November and part of December.  The rest of the fields will be pruned starting in March.  If we don’t receive a lot of snow we’ll be back to burn the other cane piles and to trim the trees around the blueberry fields.

Don’t forget to check out the Winter Farmer’s Market this Saturday at Exeter High School from 10 to 2.  Check out the Seacoast Eat Local website http://www.seacoasteatlocal.org/winterfarmersmarkets/ for the winter market dates and list of vendors.

The Blueberry Season is Almost Over

It’s hard to believe that the blueberry picking season is just about over.  We opened 2 weeks early this year due to the warm spring and the warmer than usual summer has pushed our season to the end.  We are anxiously waiting for the Late Blues to ripen which we expect will be near the end of this week and then we will reopen and pick until it’s over!

Thanks to all of our customers who braved the 90 degree plus days to get their blueberries and thanks to Chris and Ben for helping us out again this season.  We wish you good luck in your sophomore year at college!  Below are a few shots of this year’s great customers and employees!

Fantastic Picking Conditions

We have great picking conditions in all three blueberry fields and have started picking some wonderful blackberries from the blackberry patch.  Blackberries are ripening each day so call ahead for best picking times. 

The following pictures are some of our favorite customers!  Be sure to come out soon for best picking conditions.  We are running 10 days ahead of our usual picking schedule because of the very warm spring and summer so we are unsure when our season will end.  The crop looks spectacular this year!