Farm Journal ~ July
July is officially blueberry month but on our farm not until mid-month.* The berries are coloring up nicely but it takes a couple of weeks for their sweetness to set in. As you can see from the photograph, every cluster will have various stages of ripening to assure a long harvest. We have five different varieties of early blooming berries and a sixth of late bloomers to extend the season into August.
The nets will be going up this week. This is a necessity for all blueberry growers - blueberries are as much a favorite delicacy for birds and wildlife as they are for humans.
We are looking forward to seeing old friends and new faces at the farm this summer. You just have to be patient a bit longer.
* July 30th update: The farm closed for the 2021 season as of July 30th. Yes, it was a short season. For those of you who were able to make it to the farm on the days we were open we appreciate your support, as always, and it was wonderful to share our blueberries with you. Many factors contributed to this being a short season: the weather, the hard pruning this spring to make up for the lack of pruning last year, making for a lower yield and some compromised bushes, and the fact that the nets were not deployed and tethered in time to beat a wind storm that swept through. The nets are old and need attention every year but the wind got the better of us. Putting the nets up and taking them down every year requires intensive labor at great financial expense. Doing away with them this year meant we lost a lot of our crop to birds. By August, the Spotted Wing Drosophila Fruit Fly (the invasive "Asian" Fruit Fly has been present on the East Coast for the past several years) makes its presence known (which requires treating the plants) so it did not make sense for us to face the month of August with that challenge due to our low yield. On top of all of this of course has been our concern for the safety and well-being of our community in the midst of a pandemic. What a month it's been!
The nets will be going up this week. This is a necessity for all blueberry growers - blueberries are as much a favorite delicacy for birds and wildlife as they are for humans.
We are looking forward to seeing old friends and new faces at the farm this summer. You just have to be patient a bit longer.
* July 30th update: The farm closed for the 2021 season as of July 30th. Yes, it was a short season. For those of you who were able to make it to the farm on the days we were open we appreciate your support, as always, and it was wonderful to share our blueberries with you. Many factors contributed to this being a short season: the weather, the hard pruning this spring to make up for the lack of pruning last year, making for a lower yield and some compromised bushes, and the fact that the nets were not deployed and tethered in time to beat a wind storm that swept through. The nets are old and need attention every year but the wind got the better of us. Putting the nets up and taking them down every year requires intensive labor at great financial expense. Doing away with them this year meant we lost a lot of our crop to birds. By August, the Spotted Wing Drosophila Fruit Fly (the invasive "Asian" Fruit Fly has been present on the East Coast for the past several years) makes its presence known (which requires treating the plants) so it did not make sense for us to face the month of August with that challenge due to our low yield. On top of all of this of course has been our concern for the safety and well-being of our community in the midst of a pandemic. What a month it's been!