« URI veggie garden open house Saturday | Main | Bamboo, Part 1 »

August 9, 2007

Don't give up yet on blueberries!

Last week, I'd hoped to get to my favorite blueberry patch to pick another 10 pounds or so of blueberries, but in calling ahead, found out they were nearly cleaned out after an onslaught of pickers over the weekend. I'd already picked about 15 pounds there, but I was hoping to make some blueberry conserve for Christmas gifts and the usual pies over the winter, so I needed a lot more. I looked online for Rhode Island berry patches and looked for one I could hit on my way home. I only had an hour or so to pick, so I chose one halfway down the list, Delvecchio's Farm at 302 Potter Rd. in North Kingstown, for two reasons. It was on my way home and it stayed open later than all the others. I didn't know what to expect after hearing the other place was all picked out.

I was the only person there to pick. At the end of a long dirt drive, I parked in front of the main house and a woman came out of the house to weigh my baskets and give me directions to the berry patch. I drove back down to the patch and had to crawl under a net. The bushes with the small berries were picked over, but the bushes with the nickel-sized berries were still loaded. I rolled handfuls off the branches, at one point leaving the heavy basket on the ground to catch them. Several people had arrived to pick when I was getting ready to leave at around 5:00. I heard one of three children say, "Can we walk up to Nonny's?" and their mom said they could.

I had been picking for about an hour and had to leave. Back up at the house, the woman came out to weigh the berries and wrote me up for almost 9 pounds. I told her that her grandkids were on their way up. She said, "Oh, those are my great-grandkids!" I asked her how much longer there would be berries to pick and she said they'd be open for blues into September. She said the season is extended because of the particular varieties they have on their farm.

I'll be putting that on my list of things to do on vacation this month for sure.

Posted by Beth Heaney  at 11:05 AM | Permalink

Comments

Post a comment

Please be civil. Vicious comments, personal attacks and profanity won't be published.

Name:

Email Address:

URL:
Remember Me? YesNo

Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style)