Black and Blue: Berries in the Bucket

     I can finally say that I have picked every last blueberry on the bush! Whew! All are sitting tidy in the freezer waiting for me to finish up the next wave of assault, the blackberries. We are absolutely covered up! When we thought about planting a berry patch for the homestead we felt that a good twenty plants was enough for whatever we wanted to fix in the way of jams and jellies. Oh, but did we know what we were really getting ourselves into? Not in the least. It appears that the mild climate that Tennessee has found itself in as of late, coupled with the rain that stretches into the summer months, has created a superb climate for berries to thrive in! in short, it has been a good year for berries!

Big Beautiful Berries

20 plants trellised into two short rows.

Unripened berries loaded with potential.

These berries are about as big as my thumb, I kid you not!

Chris is busy stripping the vines.

We get about two gallons every other day from our 20 plants. I suspect we would get even more if we could be available to pick daily, but as it stands we live 45 minutes away and can only come by every few days for picking. there has been talk between Chris and my brother, Dean about adding more plants in the Fall, and then again in the Spring. I think the plan may be that we build up to a U-Pick operation at some point. I'm okay with that!

Traveling at the speed of life.