Blueberries in Bloom!

Currently, our blueberries are in full bloom. We were expecting a freeze last week, but thankfully this did not materialize. If the weather and other uncontrollable factors are still smiling on us when the season gets here, we should have a good crop of berries.

At Farmer Mac's, we currently have two varieties of blueberries, ONeals and Croatans. The ONeal variety is a bit earlier than the Croatans and has a crisper skin for a pleasant pop when eaten. The Croatan variety is about a week later in harvesting, is a tad smaller and sweeter.

The Croatans are looking especially good...lots of flowers and healthy plants.The ONeals still are not back up to full production after that Easter freeze of 2 years ago, but we're doing the best we can with what we have.

This year, we took out 4 rows of Croatans to plant a new variety called New Hanover. So far, at least in test plots, this looks like a good alternative to Croatan and something we may add more of over the next couple of years. We also replanted the left end of our back field with ONeals, or rather, we filled in all the spaces from the plants that didn't winter well. Once these get large enough to bear fruit, we should have a good harvest from them.

I've heard from several customers this week asking about the blueberry crop for this year and when we might begin our season. Thanks for your calls and emails! The truthful answer is that it's still a little too soon to tell exactly when we'll be opening, but I'll keep you posted as we go along.

We had the addition of 2 new baby goats this February, a boy and a girl. We gave away the boy baby from last year, so currently our stock is the dad, the mom, last year's girl, and this year's twins. We have several ducks setting right now, but nothing has hatched yet as it's still a bit early for them.

Farmer Mac's health is much better this year than last. Most of you weren't able to see much of him last year because he just didn't feel up to being out and about. Thankfully, he has improved so much that he almost seems like his old self again!