Patriot. Liberty. Earliblue. Blueray. Bluejay. Bluecrop.
As the heat of July hits, it’s time to get to know some of the blueberry varieties already ripening at local pick your own spots.
At Rosaly’s Farmstand in Peterborough, field hands were busy picking the early berries for sale at the stand, although customers are also able to pick their own for a reduced price.
These hardy bushes have been a part of Rosaly’s Field Manager Linda Estabrook’s life for a long time, she said. When Estabrook, now a Lyndeborough resident, was growing up in Sharon, one of her first jobs was as a blueberry picker for Gary Payton’s farm. So imagine her surprise when she found out that the bushes at Rosaly’s had been transplanted from the Payton’s farm.
“I started out picking these bushes, and I’m still picking them now,” said Estabrook. “They’re just in a different location.”
“Everybody is happy to ‘pick your own,’” said Anthony Levick, who owns Monadnock Berries in Troy with his wife Fenella Levick. “It’s a nice atmosphere on a pick your own farm, because everyone wants to be there. We have customers that feel as though it’s their farm and come year after year and want to pick the same row.”
July is just in time for the earliest varieties of blueberries to ripen up, and most pick your own spots are opening their doors for the first picks of the season this weekend. They’ll be happy to welcome back their regulars.
“We have one regular that we call the ‘Pie Guy.’” said Gordon Webber, the manager of Patten Hill Farm in Antrim. “He comes at night after work, which is beyond our regular hours, but we allow it as he’s a regular. He wears a headlamp and picks into a coffee can tied around his neck for his pie fillings.”
A diversely planted field can yield berries from the start of July well into September, as long as the berries aren’t stopped by an early frost, said John Garneau, the owner of Smith’s Blueberries in New Ipswich.
Blueberries are a slow maturing plant, taking three years from their first growth until they begin bearing any fruit at all, and several more years before they reach their full fruit-bearing potential. But many of the farms around the region that sell berries off the bush have been around for decades or longer, giving an abundant yield for those browsing the bush for the ripest pickings.
Like Garneau. He purchased Smith’s Blueberries from his inlaws – where the name “Smith” originated – as an already established blueberry farm growing since 1975. With more than 650 bushes, Garneau isn’t even sure of how many varieties are in his field anymore.
Some are unique, as his father worked with the University of New Hampshire to develop new varieties of blueberries most suited to the New Hampshire climate.
Or Tim Winship and Julie McAdoo of New Field Farm in Temple, who have been in the pick your own berries business since 1987, though they have only been cultivating blueberries since the year 2000.
“The you-pick berries are now the majority of our blueberry business,” said Winship.