Nearing the End

Last Friday we had this fun group of people come to pick blueberries and blackberries for their Saturday wedding.   Who knew getting married could be so much fun!  They managed to crawl through the blackberry patch and snag the best fruit of the season and picked a lot of blueberries too.  The bride and groom told me they were going to combine their fruit with fresh fruit from Warren’s Farm (where they were getting married) to make the wedding dessert.  Sounds like a perfect wedding!

I can’t believe we are almost ready to call it a season at Berrybogg.  We had a lot of people out this weekend picking the last of the Berkeleys and Jerseys so we decided to close the farm until Thursday when we will make a last run at the Late Blues which are looking big and beautiful.  Unfortunately, with all the rain from the previous weeks we have been suffering the wrath of mosquitoes so make sure you wear bug spray when you come to pick.  Early mornings and late afternoon seems to be the worst but the weather forecast is for bright and clear skies without a lot of humidity so hopefully that will minimize their numbers.

Sunday Picking

We have no shortage of cute berry picking kids this year and this little guy is no exception.  Yesterday was a great day to pick with little or no sun so the heat was not oppressive.  We had a few showers but lucked out and avoided the downpours that many in the state experienced yesterday. Mondays we are closed so we can do maintenance on the farm which usually involves lots of mowing.  Hopefully we can accomplish this before the showers move in again this afternoon.

The Bluecrop are coming in nicely in our first field and will be available for picking on Tuesday.  The Bluecrop berry is an excellent eating berry and has a beautiful light blue color.  We have eight rows of this variety with an excellent fruit set so there will be spectacular picking this week and in the weeks to come.  The second field has been a good source for the Northland berry.  This is a smaller very sweet berry which a lot of our customers like to pick for baking (and eating!).  The second field is also home to our Blueray berries which are starting to ripen.  They should be in full production by the end of this week. Finally, our third field has been yielding hundreds of pounds of Bluettas and still has many hundreds of pounds of fruit to pick.  Once this fruit goes by we have a great mid-season berry called Berkeley in our third field and the later fruit called Darrow.

Many of you have asked about our blackberry patch.  We believe that the blackberries should be ready in the next few weeks and could come sooner depending on the weather.  We will certainly update our phone message and web site when they become available.  When we do open, they go fast and we usually shut the patch down for a day or two for ripening as we pick out quickly.

The above picture is of our screen house which houses the local jams, honey and maple syrup that we sell.  In addition, my sister-in-law is offering her delicious salsa again this year.  A local man has been providing us with a few fresh vegetables for our customers.  The new red potatoes that he grows are a big hit and won’t last long.  We support local farms and food manufacturers and hope you will too.  Check out the Seacoast Harvest Local Food Guide at www.seacoastharvest.org for a list of the many farms and farmer’s markets in Strafford, Rockingham and York counties.