When the Berries Will Be Ready
We are a PYO farm. The harvest usually starts 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 seven days per week until Columbus Day. We sell jam,
maple syrup, books, & coffee even if it is before or after the harvest/picking season. During the season we will usually have pre-picked berries for sale as well.
Picnics and pleasant walks around the farm are welcome. However, dogs are not permitted in the orchard please.
Please call us at 802-767-3989 for up-to-date picking conditions. We will leave a fresh recorded message every day during the season.
Ripening will vary from year to year depending on the weather. The dates that berries are usually ripe are:
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about July 8
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Raspberries ripen first.
We have 3 acres of raspberries, in four varieties:
Reveille (yes they come up first!);
Kilarney;
Nova;
Taylor. Taylors swell up last, around the last week of July and go a week or so 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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about July 25
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Blueberries arrive. We have almost 3,000 bushes, in four varieties:
We will have Patriots first,
quickly followed by Blue Crop & Blue Ray varieties,
and finally our Jersey blueberries ripen around mid-August and last until late-September or longer.
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about September 8.
about July 15
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Blackberries start around the second week of September.
Our acre of the "Illini Hardy" variety produces a Fall crop, usually well after the warmest and wettest days of the summer have passed. (The summer crop comes from the previous year's canes and so far has not yet survived our winter). They also ripen gradually and play "chicken" with September's cool nights. But if we don't get a hard frost, they can go well into October.
Sour Cherries. We have 35 sour cherry trees. We got a crop for the first time in 2009 so let's hope that's the start of a habit for them! They ripened over the last 2 weeks of July.
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