How about a thread for "U-pick" fruit/vegetables... I just picked 4 quarts of...

D

dawnnys

Well-known member
strawberries this morning in under 15 minutes. In late-summer we can pick blueberries and raspberries from a local farm; early fall is apples - hundreds of orchards around here (well maybe not hundreds, but a lot!). I even saw one place last year where you could pick your own collard greens! Not much to that except pointing out which one you'd like him to cut down - lol.

Anyone else? What can you pick in your area? It will be fun to see the variety in different parts of the country/world.

 
We have a place called Oak Glen. . .

where you can pick apples in early fall and raspberries in late summer and early fall(1 hr. away). Down towards San Diego, off the 5 Freeway there is a place you can pick strawberries (2 hrs. away).

Other than growing it yourself, there is nowhere else around here, close by, to pick-it-yourself.

I still remember years ago, driving through the Okanagan area of British Columbia, wishing I could set up and can a whole sh**load of fruit!! And more recently, driving to outside of Redding, CA and passing through all the fruit growing areas up there. I still kick myself for not bringing back a lug or two of peaches and nectarines. . .

 
wild arctic blueberries---with one eye always on the lookout for a blueberry munching bear.>>

We also have low bush and high bush wild "cranberries" that are more like lingonberries. Very tart and small and very much like cranberries. And then there are the salmonberries that look like salmon colored raspberries, but grow up on stems out in the tundra, not on bushes. I'm not very fond of these. I don't think they have much flavor, but some up here love them. It's the berry of choice for "eskimo ice cream".

 
I forgot! One year i was able to get enough wild blackberries from the canyon . . .

where my mom used to live. Best jam I have ever eaten, bar none!

 
We probably have 25 places to pick different fruits in season

and of course, some of the finest peaches in the world.

 
We have a few in our area, also

Strawberries, blueberries, grapes, peaches, apples mainly. Blackberries grow wild around many country roads and in fields. They're about ripe now.

DH and I may have to open a U-Pick Tomato patch this summer if our 37 plants do much since I don't think I'll have time to can much. Maybe I'll take them to the Sat morning Farmer's Market ont he courthouse square in town.

http://www.lasr.net/pages/city.php?Mt.%20Vernon&Missouri&&City_ID=MO0706036&Attraction_ID=MO0706036a004&VA=Y

 
Mistral, you are so right about that!

Did your mom strain the seeds? Growing up we always had seeds in ours so it really doesn't bothter me but a lot of people won't eat them.

One of my earliest childhood memories is of my mom making (and eating) blackberry jam! I'll eat blackberries, seeds and all! They are sooo good! When we lived on our farm my DH used to pick me about 8 gallons each year and I'd freeze some and make the rest into jam. Yum

 
Never heard of salmonberries. What do you do with high bush cranberries? I've never seen anyone

eat them.

Now bears, I've heard of...and seen far too many times. It's about the only thing I'm afraid of. that's why I'm happy to battle the birds for the saskatoons in my backyard.

Do not like bears.

Do not like bears.

 
Bears & blueberries

Your post brought back a memory of my stay in AK many years ago. My cousins and I were at their summer place at Halibut Cove. They decided to go out berry picking. One cousin returned quickly to get a gun as she had just heard from a neighbor that a crippled bear was seen on the island. Then she went back into the wild to join the berry pickers. Being a city girl from the east coast, I remained inside the cabin for the rest of our mini vacation on Kachemak Bay. I'm trying to remember what "eskimo ice cream" is...and I don't think it was a dairy product.

 
That reminds me - hubby cut down a very strange ("weedy") tree from...

under another (planted) tree, and when he dragged it out to the front yard, I saw that it had black, oblong berries on it! I thought blackberries came on bushes with prickers... this was definatley a hardwood tree. Does anyone know what it might have been? Mulberry? Elderberry? Botany class has been a while ago!

 
I am lucky to have my own garden

I have so far: apples, goose berries, plums, sweet cherries, cherries, blackberries, sour cherries, grapes, strawberries and a couple more but I don't know their name in english.

I live 2 minutes from the woods were I can pick wild blue berries. They taste wonderful, and there's no bears here smileys/smile.gif

I also go to a local farm to pick my own corn and potatoes in fall.

 
The only reason I strain the seeds out of black and raspberry jam is my husband. . .

he always complains that the seeds hurt his teeth. I like those jams with some seeds at least, unless the berries are very, very dry and thus very seedy. Sometimes wild berries are like that out here--not that I have ever seen wild RASPberries around here.

 
just strawberries and blueberries here, but....

taking a walk on the wildside....

blackberries
marion berries
huckle berries

in the fall, chanterels, oyster mushrooms and porcini are abundant.

no complaints here.... smileys/smile.gif

 
More on bears & blueberries....

our daughter and SIL live in the upper reaches of the Adirondack State Park in NY, and when Chris (SIL) takes his tractor out to mow the back 40 during berry season, he does 2 things.
He brings a bucket and his blueberry rake, so he can collect the delicious little fruit, and he also carries his loaded rifle. He said he has yet to need it, but he just can't run as fast as a momma bear who feels threatened, or who thinks Chris is stealing her food supply.
We've seen fairly fresh bear claw marks on trees while walking the paths through their woods, and we always look over our shoulder when picking the ripe raspberries along the way.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top