My Favorite Local Blueberry Farm
And Why You Should Support Your Local Farmers, Even If You Are One!
Full disclosure: My Bobo is a few years older, as tall as I am, and about one hundred pounds heavier now. His blueberry intake has likewise increased mightily...
Riley Creek Blueberry Farm is located in Laclede, Idaho. Every year for the last twelve years or so I have driven up to the little mill town and wandered out into the six acres of blueberry awesomeness.
Here are some of my favorite attributes of this little farm:
It was started by a teacher who left his occupation to seek out his dream.
The setting is super relaxed and chill. You want to bring your dog? That's cool. Do you have a "special" relative that has no public censorship ability. Bring em along! Picking berries at the Riley Creek patch feels like going out into your own back yard. There is this welcoming vibe that really permeates the place.
As you exit your car, you walk up and grab some red buckets out of the stack, and head out into the patch. Each cultivar has a wooden sign at the end of the first row that tells you what type of berry is before you. Sometimes there is a person to tell you what to do, other times there is not, which brings me to another favorite thing about the farm:
You weigh and pay for your berries on the honor system.
It's so very cool to walk up to the little shack, weigh your berries on the provided scale, log the weight in the "Weighed and Paid" book, and bag your berries in the graciously provided zipper freezer bags.
The price of the berries for U-pick in 2016 was $2.50/lb, and the four people in my family usually pick our yearly berry need of forty pounds (My not-so little any more Hawaiians love fruit) in about an hour. Okay, if I am honest I pick most of that because I am some sort of weirdo that doesn't like to eat berries while I pick. You may all throw digital mockery in my direction, I am used to it in the real life form.
It's not uncommon to see generations of family members out in the patch. The conversations that one overhears keep any sort of boredom at bay if you aren't content to be out in a beautiful blueberry field early in the day. There is something so fulfilling; about filling a bucket with berries, I don't think that I will ever tire of it.
Another thing that I won't ever tire of is supporting other small farmers and ranchers. It is truly a labor of love to engage in any form of agriculture, especially on a small scale. I could easily grow blueberries, but there is something fulfilling about buying something from a member of the community that has put so much labor and passion into carving out their niche.
While I do strive to be self-sufficient, I believe it is important to learn to rely on and be aware of other people's strengths and appreciate the gifts that they offer the community. The energy that I don't have to put into growing blueberries can be spent on another aspect of production on my farm. I hope to one day be as good a steward of agriculture to my community with whatever my niche is as the folks that run Riley Creek Blueberry Farm.
And as always, the images in this post were taken on the author's blueberry stained iPhone.
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Much gratitude to you all!
I'm glad you have some nice U-pick places nearby. I had to stop picking cherries at U-pick places, because I would eat too many of them while I was picking. One nice thing about U-pick operations is that they have different varieties, so we can see what might do well in our own gardens. I hope your kids will be your berry-picking helpers for a while, even as they get older.
Good to know that U-Pick Cherries are your Kryptonite! If a U-Pick orchard grew trees full of amaretto truffles, I'd be in trouble...
LOL! You should see the amount of fruit ingested when we go pick strawberries! The kids are great helpers, not that they are given a choice, for there is a one bucket minimum to be picked requirement from Mom and Dad! 😉
The variety thing is so true! I found my favorite strawberry variety of all time (well, so far!), Mesabi, at a local U-pick farm. We have an entire community of U-Pick farms about 45 minutes from my house, there you can find everything from Bok Choi to Peaches. If I ever get too lazy to grow things it's nice to know that there will always be a bunch of fresh, seasonable produce available just a short car ride away, but the probability of me not growing produce is small; I kinda like to grow things. Like a lot! lol!
There's a GMO project waiting for a bright young Monsanto wizard -- Amaretto truffle trees! ; ) My parents say I used to sleepwalk, when I was about eight. I'd wander around, chanting "Cherry pie, Cherry pie, Cherry pie". I guess I did this regularly. That's better than saying something out of a horror movie, I guess! ; )
So we both are in the camp of gardeners who garden because they like to grow plants. I grow so much more than I can ever eat. Nobody hassles flower gardeners - "What did you do with those flowers?" But with food, we can feel so bad to see it not picked. I try to give a lot to our local food bank. It's a shame that more people don't appreciate how easy it is to grow certain plants -- not every plant, but some are incredibly easy and productive, for most anyone.
LOL! "Cherry pie" That is excellent!
I give away so much produce every year, and you are so right about the yields of certain plants. There are some years that I never want to see another tomato or squash ever again, yet strangely enough I find myself planting a pile of them the next growing season, lol!
We do a big thing at the library every year called "Going to Seed" where we get in presenters that show people how easy it is to do various aspects of food production from container gardening to edible landscaping. We also give away seeds to the community at these events, and there is a pretty good sized seed swap at one of the big library's in a neighboring town. I wish more people realized how easy it is to grow some high yield crops, but the interest is there and growing, and people totally appreciate folks like you with your amazing storehouse of gardening knowledge! 😊
Also, I yearn for the amaretto truffle tree....
How great that your libraries do that! Libraries aren't just for books anymore! :D
It's great to see people take an interest in growing food. It was such a natural way of being in my own family's history. But I know so many people didn't get that advantage. It's great to have programs that can help people share and get started. Here's to Gardening for All and a continuation of the tradition of sharing by gardeners! :D
This looks like heaven! Love blueberries, but they are hard to come by here in Cambodia. Maybe I should start growing my own! Do you think they would do well in a tropical climate?
Oooh! I am always up for an experiment! I know that the Southern Highbush varieties of blueberry plants require a low amount of chill hours, and I think that your biggest challenge will be making sure that your soil is acidic and well drained enough. Over the years I have tried growing lots of plants that shouldn't be able to grow in my climate, with some successes and more than a few failures! Sometimes you luck out, and it would be awesome if you could make your blueberry wish come true! Good Luck!
Do you grow them from seeds, seedlings, or cuttings? I'll see if I can get my hands on the variety you mentioned. Thanks for the info and it would be so awesome indeed... tropical berry lady, hopefully in the make.
Sorry I took forever to get back to you, I've been at kid's basketball games most of the day! When it comes to blueberries, most people here in the US buy plants that are usually at least a year old or more so you don't have to wait too long for your first crop. It does look like you can grow them from seed, they just have to be kept moist, and they take a LONG time to germinate. Here's a place that sells seeds: http://bluegrassblueberries.com/purchase-blueberry-seeds/
I can't wait to hear how your experiment goes.
No worries! We're all busy people here! Not sure if they are going to ship to Cambodia, though. But I'll try. If not I'll try to sneak some plants or seeds in the next time I come back from some place where they sell plants or seeds! I did this last year, but then my little plant got lost in the 3-day flood :-(. Thanks again for your advice! Much appreciated.
Almost-entirely-unrelated video link response: Vladimir Putin singing Blueberry Hill
Well, at least I can say that I went to bed with thoughts of blueberries dancing Putin-esque in my head....