If you do much produce shopping at all, you know that $1/lb. for fresh blueberries is a great price.
I had a wonderful experience at Touchablue Berry Farm, and I have 3 tips for you if you decide to go too!
Usually the areas nearest the entrance are picked over really well. We showed up in the evening, saw the other vehicles, and planned to go into the rows a bit, but got caught almost immediately by the flush of berries. So many berries!!!
The farm provides the containers lined with bags for picking. There are various sizes of buckets outfitted with ropes to hang around your neck, leaving both hands free for picking. The large black buckets hold about 8 lbs of berries, which get a bit heavy toward the end. The smaller black buckets hold about 3 lbs.
This picking arrangement was different than what I had used at Blue Basket Farms. It’s interesting seeing the different ways to hold blueberries while picking. 🙂
We ended up with 20 pounds of blueberries!! I made some blueberry jam the next morning. Can’t get much fresher than that-blueberries canned less than 24 hours after picking!
Here’s me after about 1.5 hours of picking. Note the hat. I’ve pretty much gotten my face back after my fluorouracil cream saga, but my hat is a common addition to my outfits and sunscreen is a common part of my getting ready routine.
3 Blueberry Picking Tips
- Plan for an evening picking session. We arrived around 6:30 pm, and that meant that shadows were lengthening and it was getting cooler, but we still had plenty of time to get lots of berries.
- If you want to fill a large bucket, I recommend you to fill a smaller bucket and transfer it to a larger. A 8 lb bucket around your neck gets a bit heavy after a while.
- Bring a hat, there’s not much shade until about 7:30 pm unless you hide behind a bush. 🙂
Touchablue Berry Farm Map
We had a wonderful time picking. They have a nice roofed station set up for weighing the produce (it’s on the honor system), sink for washing your hands, paper cones for water, and a picnic table, and even a portapotty. 🙂
It’s a great setup and a wonderful place for a family evening. They also have long rows of muscadine grapes, which will also be $1/ lb when they’re in season. Maybe I’ll try making some grape jelly this year. Hard to beat that price!
You can like them on Facebook to see what others are saying and hopefully they will update when grapes are ready.
June can be tough for being outside, but there are still things to do and even crops to plant. Look for a post on what you can do in the June garden soon!
Coffee to Compost 
Blueberries haven’t survived the harsh winters here in Michigan for the past two years. I’m hopeful that this August we’ll hear good news about the crops this year. A dollar a pound though is incredible. So lucky!
Yes, I was so happy to get so many for such a great price!
Thanks very much for the account on the U-pick blueberry operation. The leader of our little fruit growing group has spoken about the possibilities of people setting up such operations. He is located in Abbeville, LA. I am planting a small acreage with fruit trees and I need to check a couple of the local U-pick blueberry operations locally. I would look into something else for growing. Blue berries are a natural in Pace, FL which is where I live. Major problem for other fruits is if the trees are not dwarfs or if the berry plants are not thornless the public can not pick them. Right now I need to pick my early Hood pears that are ready. My dogs have been eating green Hood pears and all of the others for some time. Their job is to guard the orchard which they do not mind sampling from time to time.
You might also look into kumquats and peaches. From what I understand, citrus can be hit or miss in North Florida, but kumquats last a long time on the tree. Loquats also do well, but I am not sure of the commercial applications for them, and their season seems to be relatively short. Peaches are also a yummy item. I don’t know of any U-pick peach orchards in North Florida. Oh yes, figs and pecans do well too. Enjoy those pears!
Peaches require a lot of work to grow long term here due to diseases. I have one Florida heirloom (Roddenberry) that grows without needing to be sprayed in the worst possible location which is under a spreading oak. REduced light and exposure to disease related to oak (oak root rot fungus). That oak is scheduled to come down. I seldom spray any food plant. Loquats grow very well here for sure. and this coming fall I will try to get some better cultivars planted and use them as a source of scion wood to graft the large number of local ones that I have growing. For some reason pecans are not doing that well for me but blight resistant chestnuts grow very well and I am also trying chinquapins. I am working on the figs. I am also looking into pomegranates and I have some cuttings being started in my nursery. Really so far it is disease resistant pears and Asian persimmons & improved American persimmons that are naturals. I highly recommend cold resistant citrus like the satsumas to the home gardener. Citrus in Pace, FL in some years will get hit hard by killing cold temps. But I recommend that all house holds get one or two going in a protected place and once they get well established they will do well. During extremely cold weather into the lower teens protect the graft junction under a pile of mulch and they will come back. Parts of Escambia Bay did freeze during one cold spell in late 80’s. These killing temperatures do occur every 30 years or so here.
Enjoy your blueberries.
Wow! You certainly are diversified! You should have lots of fruit and nuts in the years to come.
For growing blueberries see this recent video by Marcus. He is a member of our little fruit growing group https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es92k3M9ci0&feature=em-subs_digest He is using starbucks coffee grounds. IIRC he lives in Georgia and has a Masters in Plant taxonomy.
Good use for coffee grounds! I love getting the used grounds for my compost pile, and have mulched my blueberries with it too. Glad to see others making good use of the free grounds! Hate to see something like that go to waste.
My blueberry bushes are providing excellent nutrition for the neighborhood robins. If I want any muffins or pancakes I’ll need to either search out my own local farm or finally get a net up!
Oh dear. My bushes are so small I haven’t bothered protecting my 15 berries, lol. If you have big bushes a quick drape with netting would probably pay for itself. We’ve made muffins and pancakes-so good!!
One of my former colleagues at UWF lives in woodbine springs and uses nets on his blueberry bushes. He has been also finding trapped snakes in the netting.
Well, that would certainly make blueberry picking a bit more exciting.