YouPick and PrePicked Blueberries

Preparing for your Farm Visit

Now let’s say you are ready to visit the farm and it is a beautiful sunny day. Keep in mind that you are visiting a farm and not a park. You may need to do some walking to get to the picking field and the ground may be wet and muddy despite the sunny weather. Wear comfortable walking shoes that can get dirty. Consider the weather and dress appropriately, again with clothes that may get dirty or snagged on branches. Depending on how much fruit you want to pick you may end up in the farm field longer than you anticipated.  It is easy to get carried away and pick way more fruit than you originally planned. You should have an idea of what you will do with your fresh produce when you get home: do you plan to freeze or can some of it, make jam, share with friends, or just happily eat it all fresh until it is gone.

• Dress comfortably with good walking shoes that may get dirty
• Consider the weather and the time you may want to spend picking
• Gather your containers and plan how much produce you want to bring home
• Be prepared for what you will do with your harvest bounty when you get home

PLANNING YOUR TRIP

• Confirm Availability & Arrive Early

  • Availability of pick-your-own and ready-picked fruit depends on many factors. We recommend checking social media for updates before you head over to the farm to pick.

  • Fields may be picked clean early and fruit is in its best condition when picked during the cooler, earlier hours of the day.

  • Our picking areas are child-friendly. Children must be accompanied with an adult at all times.

  • Please call before coming to find out about the picking conditions.  You can reach us at (901) 652-9002. Also, don’t forget to pack a picnic lunch!  We have picnic tables and plenty of grassy areas available. We do our very best to make sure the grass is cut weekly in the blueberry and blackberry patch to ensure that your blueberry and blackberry picking experience is an enjoyable one. Please help us keep our blueberry and blackberry patch clean by picking up your trash. Thank you!

• Containers

  • We provide plastic bag liners for our gallon or 5-quart picking pails for easily transporting your berries home in your plastic liner bag. If you would like to take a pail home, you are welcome to do so for a $2 charge per pail. Of course, feel free to bring your own containers as well! NOTE: plastic liners have small holes for air circulation and warm berries may produce juice, so, regardless of your container, keep this in mind for car travel home.

  • Remember that piling blackberries too high will bruise the lower berries. Shallow containers are your best option for storage

Blueberries

Search for a good bush with lots of ripe blueberries. The best blueberries are round, blue, with firm skin that is not cracked or mushy. The general rule for blueberries is “the bigger, the sweeter” and what you pick is what you get as blueberries will not sweeten any further after picking. Do not pick berries that are white or small and hard as these blueberries have not begun to ripen yet. You also do not want to pick overripe, soft blueberries as they will be mush by the time you get home.

To pick the blueberries, cup your hand under the cluster and simply roll the berries off the stem. If the berry does not come off with a very light touch then it is probably not ripe – leave it and move on to the next berry. You will get the hang of this with a little practice and soon you will be picking a whole cluster of blueberries with ease. Gently roll your berries into your container. Continue picking until you have all the good berries off the bush then move to the next bush. Once you have all the berries you want travel back to the counter to have your berries weighed.

Make sure you wash your blueberries before eating or freezing. Blueberries will last up to one week in the refrigerator. I discovered a good technique of rinsing the berries with a water vinegar mixture to keep the berries from spoiling, click this link for details How to Keep Your Berries Fresher for Longer. Before you freeze your blueberries you need to wash them. Then completely dry the blueberries by spreading out on a layer of paper towels on the counter. Once they are thoroughly dried place the blueberries in plastic freezer bags or containers and freeze. I like to freeze about 10 pounds of blueberries to enjoy them all winter long.