We finished pruning the blueberry plants last week which is record time for us. It helps when you don’t have to trudge through 2 feet of snow to begin pruning in March and it also helps that the folks who help us prune are very good. Now comes the part we all dread…picking up the canes!
The picture above is of row 20 in the second field which is a variety called Northland. This particular field was planted about 30 years ago and the Northland plants have experienced extraordinary growth in that time. Maybe too extraordinary! They produce very nice abundant fruit but they tend to take over the rows creating a jungle atmoshphere in our second field. As a result, we have been severely pruning this variety and this particular row was pruned with a chainsaw. In the next picture you will see row 6 in the second field which is another row of Northlands. This row was cut down with a chainsaw about 3 years ago and has grown nicely with a large amount of blossoms for this year.
While we were pruning last week, we spotted a pair of eagles flying very high towards the south over Bow Lake. This was exciting to see because they are probably the pair of eagles which has been seen on Bow Lake for the last two years. Our hope is that this pair will successfully build a nest and produce chicks. For more information on New Hampshire eagles visit the audubon web site at http://www.nhaudubon.org/
Our shipment of blueberry plants has just arrived so stay tuned to the blog for a special offer to buy plants now. We’ll have more information in the next few days.
I had to take a picture of this little boy yesterday because he was having so much fun eating his blueberry pie. Unfortunately, I took the picture when his eyes were closed but it’s still a great picture. Even his outfit was blueberry cute!
I hope the customer who lost her ten dollar bill reads the blog because we found it (in the trash can!) She came with three other ladies and they are celebrating her birthday today (July 13) on Northwood Lake and I think they’re from Walpole, MA. She only comes once a year on her birthday so if she doesn’t get this message, we’ll save it for her next year!
Here’s a great picture of two large baskets of blueberries from our third field. They actually look smaller in this picture but I’m pretty sure they hold about 16 pounds of blueberries each. The lady who picked them went on to pick over 70 pounds of blueberries! That’s a lot of blueberries!
Today was crazy! Actually, this week was crazy. We have been working overtime to get the fields ready for opening day and yet we still didn’t get everything done. Oh well…the blueberries are blue and need to be picked so tomorrow we open.
Our apologies to the folks who got multiple emails announcing our opening and our apologies to the folks who didn’t get anything. I’m going to have to hire a new computer team (that would be me!) We have Metrocast as an ISP and for some reason anyone else who has Metrocast and has their firewall on could not receive our email (this is what the Metrocast tech support told my son). Unfortunately, many Metrocast folks did not get our email announcement.
Our apologies to anyone who saw the Foster’s Daily Democrat ad and took a drive out today. The ad did not say opening on Friday , July 11 and ultimately that was my fault because I proofed the ad. If only the paper had not switched from an evening edition to a morning edition!
Other than the lawn mower breaking (again!) it has been a good week and hopefully it will be a great season. Hope to see everyone at the farm!
As you can see from the photo, the blueberries are still green. Once again it looks like a great crop coming in and now we only need mother nature to turn on the sun and heat. Last year we opened on July 12 and we’re sure it will be close to that date this year.
We have been busy in-between the rain showers fertilizing, mowing, painting and still picking up canes! This year we have two new employees pictured on the golf cart. I call them the dynamic duo because they are a brother and sister team. Liz and Ben will be with us all summer as well as the rest of the family. We look forward to seeing all of you in the next few weeks! Lets go SUN!
Our two year old blueberry plants arrived Friday and they look great. We only ordered 100 plants, 50 Patriots and 50 Blue Rays. You need two varieties for cross pollination unless you decide to plant them near wild blueberries on your property. These varieties are both mid-season with a good cold hardiness rating. We actually grow the Blue Ray in our second field and they have proven to be an excellent large sweet fruit. Right now the plants are in 1 gallon containers but we hope to transplant them into 3 gallon pots near the end of the week. If you would like any of the plants before we transplant, we can offer them for $12.95. If you prefer to buy them at the farm this summer, we will be offering them for $15.95.
Unfortunately, it rained all weekend but that actually turned out to be a good thing as we were able to get a burn permit and burn brush (mostly canes we recently pruned). The following picture is of my husband trying to burn down the field! Ha! Actually, he’s using the tractor to compact the burn pile. All went well and we were able to get a lot done. 
