On labor day, our family took our second annual U-Pick Raspberry trip down to Plow Creek Farm, about 2 hours south west of Chicago. Prior to leaving I had researched on their website to make sure the season was up and running and how the crop was doing. I noticed that blackberry season was still open, so I had a plan in the back of my mind to check out their blackberry patch.
We spent about an hour picking 8 pints of raspberries at $2 a pint. Other than the one other family finishing up when we got there, we had the entire patch to ourselves. I remembered from the website that the blackberry patch was up “blueberry hill”, so everyone jumped back into the van and headed up the hill. WOW!!! I had no idea we were missing the jackpot. The blackberry bushes were at least 6 foot tall, with some pushing 8 foot. In just a few minutes we had picked another 6 pints of blackberries. I noticed there was another patch of raspberries next to the blackberry patch and further up the hill…the blueberries. It looks to me like everyone stays down the hill in the lower patch as the raspberries were not as picked over as the lower patch. Next year we are going to head straight for “blueberry hill”!!
$2 a pint is a great price, but i guess one has to figure in gas and travel as well. what will you do with all the berries?
I forgot to mention what we did with the berries! We made a blackberry pie and I made several pints of blackberry preserves and twice as much raspberry preserves. We end up eating through it all well before next spring.