The Berry Patch

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away there was this berry patch with this Wylie wabbit who lived in a hutch all covered with straw.  Oops!  I must be dreaming again or maybe it was too much sun but I think I got the berry patch at least right in this little story.  Okay I got it now.  We were at a berry patch and it's not too far from camp.  And talk about berries.  Almost as far as the eye could see (well maybe 20 acres or so) there were rows upon rows of delicious raspberries.

We stopped at Riverbend Farms (www.greatberries.net), just a little ways from downtown South Haven Michigan (just east of the Blue Star Highway and North Shore Drive) to see what that had to offer.

Riverbend Farms South Haven Michigan

We've seen this berry farm from its beginnings back in about 2009 as we passed it on the way to places where we shop.  Neat rows stoutly supported with wire supports, cleanly mulched and watered with an underground watering and fertilization system.  Pretty much a state of the art berry patch if you'd ever want to see one.  Over the past year or so I have talked with the owner and his son and have learned of the research and work they have put into this place and now us berry pickers and eaters can finally enjoy the results of all that effort.

As we walked up to the bright red shed/office/storage building we passed several customers who had already been out picking.  Oh my, I thought.  We're going to have some great berry eating before too long.  We got our picking trays that held about 8 pints and were asked if we wanted to pick red or black.
Now I usually think in terms of playing roulette when someone says that,  but in this case it was red or black raspberries.  I'm not sure many folks know of black raspberries but sort of being a Michigan boy I knew all about black raspberries.  Usually a little bigger than the red ones, and we soon found out this old idea had not changed, many were the size of the end of your thumb.

We started down our assigned row and could not believe how many ripe berries there were.  We soon filled 6 pints not moving more than15 feet down the row.  And that didn't include the ones I popped into my mouth when I was sure no one was watching.  I'm probably the only one who has ever snitched an extra berry every now and then so I thought I'd better confess.  We decided we'd picked enough black ones and headed back to the shed where they refrigerated them for us until we were ready to leave.  We picked up some fresh empty pint baskets for picking the red raspberries and headed to our assigned row.

Reds

Much like the black berries, the reds were just as plentiful, but a little smaller so it took another couple of minutes to fill each pint.  I was now getting into a rhythm ... pick 5 ... eat one ... pick 5 ... eat one.  I think they know there might be of few of us berry samplers out there and actually hope we eat some as there were far more berries than will ever be picked.  So I figure I'm really doing them a great service by harvesting a few extra and taste-testing as I go.  Or at least that's the story I'm sticking to.

So the more I picked that great malady all pro-pickers get finally got me.  I got a bad case of 'berry fingers' and finally had to call it a day.  Probably permanently stained but who cares.  It was certainly worth the effort on a bright beautiful day here in South Haven.  We harvested about 10 pints of the delicious little orbs and headed back to camp.  So now they sit in the frig waiting to be placed in a pie ... or on vanilla ice cream ... or my morning cereal,  or just popped into my mouth when Sharon isn't looking.  Life is good!

Blacks

They say they will be picking black raspberries for another week or so and the reds a little longer  ... then the reds will go sort of dormant for a couple of weeks or so and then start producing again almost into September.

So if you have a hankering for some really fine raspberries, get in the old pickup, grab the wife, and any kid hanging around and get a picking.

Just a few minutes of picking

Just in case anybody wants to know ... this and the last few blog entry images were shot with my Canon S95.  Canon's high-end pocketable powerhouse that really performs.  It's with me now almost constantly and is so much lighter than my Canon 5D system.  It will never replace the full frame 5D but makes a great carry everywhere, point and shoot camera.

Still livin' and pickin' the dream.

Phil