When the Berries Will Be Ready
The harvest usually starts right after Fourth of July (with raspberries) and ends with the first hard frost of the Fall--late September or early October.
We open the farm July Fourth weekend and remain open until Columbus Day (closed some Wednesdays--do check in with us about Wednesdays). We are open to sell jam,
maple syrup, books, & coffee between the above dates, even if it is before or after the harvest/picking season. We are a PYO farm but
usually have pre-picked berries available in our farm store.
Picnics and pleasant walks around the farm are welcome. However, dogs are not permitted in the orchard please, even on a leash.
Please call us at 802-767-3989 during the season for up-to-date picking conditions. We will leave a fresh recorded message every day during the season. Pre-season and post-season inquiries at 802-767-9385.
Ripening will vary from year to year depending on the weather. However, the dates that berries are usually ripe are:
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July 8 or so
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Summer Raspberries ripen first.
We have 3 acres of raspberries, in four varieties:
Reveille (yes they come up first!);
Killarney;
Nova;
Taylor. Taylors swell up last, around the last week of July and go a week or more into August -- If you are a die-hard raspberry fan and willing to search, you may continue to find some raspberries (mostly Nova and Taylor) into late August, it just requires a bit more patience.
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July 20 or so
late August
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Blueberries arrive. We have more than 2,500 bushes, in four varieties:
Patriots ripen first, quickly followed by Blue Crop & Blue Ray varieties, and finally our Jersey blueberries ripen around mid-August and last until mid-September or longer.
Sour Cherries. We have 30 sour cherry trees. We got a crop for the first time in 2009 but we never know from one year to the next if they will make it through the spring frosts and rain. If we do get them, they are the second half of July.
Fall Raspberries We planted a small patch (about 200 plants) of late-summer fruiting raspberries in 2010. They should bear fruit towards the end of August this year. These plants will not be certified organic until 2012.
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September 10
or so
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Blackberries start around the second week of September.
Our acre of the "Illini Hardy" variety produces a late crop, usually well after the warmest and wettest days of the summer have passed. A spring frost in early May 2011 appears to have spoiled this year's crop.
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