Have you ever visited a “U Pick”? Here in Upstate NY we are lucky-there are lots of “U-Pick” places. Raspberries. Strawberries. Blueberries. Apples. Pumpkins.
Not all at the same time of course! It’s a great, inexpensive way to buy your fruit–and pick your own is a fun outing for you and the kids! Just last week I took Princess and Buddy and headed off to a “U-Pick” Blueberry place just 10 minutes away.
The place is lovely, up on top of a hill, with TONS of high bush blueberries full of plump, ripe berries.
Gorgeous eh?
You start out at any Upick by heading to the cash register and having your empty bucket weighed. Usually they mark the weight on a piece of tape or right on the bucket with a marker so you don’t wind up paying for the weight of the bucket-just of the berries.
We love using these coffee containers–they have handles and lids and are a convenient size. We brought a bucket for each of us, some water bottles, bug spray and sunscreen.
We picked for about 45 minutes. The kiddos did a pretty good job filling their buckets about half full before they got bored and started chasing each other through the bushes and entertaining the lady running the cash register.
When we were all done we brought the buckets to the register and she weighed them and did some figuring.
The end result? We easily picked 10 lbs of blueberries for $12 in about 45 minutes. I got plenty of berries to freeze, dehydrate and turn into jam, saved a TON of money and the kiddos eve had a fun time.
This year we missed strawberry season (I heard it wasn’t too great anyway). We will be able to hit the fall raspberries–raspberries are my absolute favorite fruit ever and I refuse to buy them in the store because they are insanely expensive. I might even go apple picking this year if the local orchards were able to save any of their blooms this spring. All my regular apple haunts have NO apples on them due to spring frosts.
To find Upick places near you you can try PickYourOwn.org, your phone book (yes, they still have those), Google or even just asking your friends.
Thank you for the link. Like you, I’m especially interested in picking red raspberries because buying them is so expensive. I found the website of a farm in my vicinity where current conditions for picking them are “very, very good.” Hopefully, that will be the case further north in a few weeks.
I used to pick wild huckleberries in upstate NY when I was a kid. My grandfather knew where we could find them (Grahamsville area).
Our blueberries are done around here — and we missed picking them because the places that allow kids to pick (blueberry places, unlike strawberries, seem to have rules about that!) were never open on weekends. 🙁 We did get over 20 pounds of strawberries in June (obviously, they were fine around here), and are planning a fall raspberries picking session soon. In Minnesota, you can find pick your own info at minnesotagrown.com; they have a free printed directory that is available with the free publications in library lobbies.
I love picking blueberries. They’re so much easier on the body then picking strawberries. I go to a place in Marathon, NY.
Sounds like some great family fun!
I live in the great state of Oregon and blueberry picking is ripe in the summer months and you can’t be the variety. Did this last year and saved so much money (ended up freezing) a few pounds of them. Not only do you beat the price at the grocery store but you end up getting way better quality of berry!