Farmer Mac's Berries Our u-pick blueberry blog

We've Done the Best We Can, But We Have Few Berries Left!

2011-06-08T16:38:00.003-04:00

We are officially closed for the 2011 season for fresh blueberries and on farm sales.
We were hoping to be open for a nice weekend to end out our season. Do you hear a but in that sentence?

It is with a significant amount of sadness that I say that the weather has officially done us in. The 3 days we gave the fields to reblue and rejuvenate just haven't do the trick. :(

We've been irrigating nearly around the clock since last Saturday and the water is only enough to keep the plants alive. It is not enough to do anything for the blueberries themselves. Any of you who have actually stopped by this week can attest to the number of branches on otherwise healthy plants that are wilting and turning brown.

Luckily enough we were intent upon replanting a good portion of the full grown plants that we have in the fields because if this keeps up, we'd have had to do it anyway.

I just hope the young plants can hold out for the rain that must be coming this way sometime soon. They are the future of Farmer Mac's Berries and we hope to start harvesting them next season.

So...for those of you who know the drill, we have that period between being officially open and officially closed. We take the open signs down but don't put up the closed sign yet.

That's where we are right now. In that in-between stage. We do have blueberries in the field that you can come and pick. We'll be around (and so should these berries) for the next week or so doing clean up and field work. If you don't mind walking alot and picking a little, feel free to come out and get a few pounds of what we have left.

When the blueberries are all gone, I'll put the closed sign out and post to the blog that we're officially closed.

Thank you for being loyal customers, great friends, and good neighbors. We enjoy sharing our family with yours and we love to hear your stories. If we don't see you again this year, have a great rest of the summer and look for us again in May 2012!

Melissa

Picked Out Again at Farmer Mac's Berries

2011-06-04T18:11:00.002-04:00

Pre-picked blueberries available at the farm all week.

U-pick fields closed until Thursday June 9, 2011 for re-ripening to take place.

Lots of factors contributing to this shortage of blueberries in the field.

1. No Rain!
2. Let me repeat...No Rain! This makes for smaller blueberries and smaller berries take longer to fill a bucket.
3. Heat ripening the berries earlier than normal. Hot in the daytime, hot at night. That's what does it.
4. Increased demand.....Lots of customers!
5. Lewis Farms and Bluefield Blueberries closed their upick fields this season for a variety of field issues.
6. #5 contributes to #4!

What this means is that we'd like to close the upick starting tomorrow (Sunday June 5 through Wednesday June 8, 2011) through Wednesday to give the fields a chance to ripen again.

We do and will have pre-picked blueberries available for purchase at the farm during this week.

Thanks for your patience with us. We're doing the best we can with the crop that we have!

Keep smiling and enjoy your blueberries!

Remember the NC Blueberry Festival is right around the corner. Saturday June 18, 2011 in Burgaw, NC.

Melissa

Heat a Factor in Blueberry Picking This Week

2011-06-01T20:24:00.002-04:00

When you come out to pick blueberries, please be careful not to get too hot. We highly suggest early morning or late afternoon as the best times to pick berries because the middle part of the day has been well into the 90's and that's just too hot for most people to be roasting in the fields.

Take frequent breaks and a bit of shade and then go back out if needed.

Don't forget a hat and sunscreen. We have water and gatorade available in the drink machine, but if you have a beverage preference, don't forget that as well.

We're at the halfway point in the season, but there are large and small green berries still out there in addition to the ripe blue and almost ripe red berries. I was walking around the back field this evening and the middle section is best for picking right now. There are also some blue in the Oneal field again for those of you interested in them.

I still anticipate a normal length season, meaning we should be open a couple more weeks, but likely not much longer than that. Maybe somewhere around the 15th, give or take about 5 days depending on rain and heat.

We look forward to seeing you soon.
Melissa

Huge Memorial Weekend at Farmer Mac's

2011-05-30T18:12:00.002-04:00

Because we had such a crowd of people here this weekend, our field has many more green berries than blueberries. I don't want to discourage you from coming to pick you own, but I would suggest waiting until Wednesday or Thursday to do it to give the berries a chance to ripen again.

We do have pre-picked blueberries available at the farm for you to purchase if you want to come out for them.

We also do have some blue berries in the field that you can pick. It's just that there are currently many more green berries than blue or red berries right now. A couple of nice warm days and with the irrigation turned on, and we should be good by mid to late week for another round of harvesting.

****************************************************************************
Over the past couple of days we've seen some great friends return to Farmer Mac's for a round or two of picking berries, conversations in the shade and remembering the olden days.

On Sunday, Mr. Halterman came out with his daughters. They were celebrating Father's Day early this year because Mr. Halterman loves to pick berries for and with them. As he is 90 years old this year and because the season started early, they wanted to make sure they got in their yearly Father's Day tradition before the blueberries were gone. I think that is so sweet and that he's such a nice man there's no wonder his daughters would think of this way to celebrate with him!

****************************************************************************

I sent out postcards for the first time this year letting folks know that we were open. I've been collecting names and addresses of customers for a couple of years but have just gotten around to doing something with them. I can't tell you how big a success this has been and I'm glad to be able to say thank you to customers who have been loyal followers of Farmer Mac's Berries. Thanks everyone for making this business a great place to work, live, and to raise a family. We couldn't do it without you!

If you'd like to have your name added to our mailing list so you get personal notification (no junk mail, no email) when we open, let us know at the stand or send me an email and I'll put you on the roster for next year.

*****************************************************************************

I said in an earlier posting that we will be ending early this year because we started early. Historically, our season averages about 35 days from beginning to end. Mom doesn't think we'll make that because it's been so consecutively hot this year and heat makes for quicker ripening of the blueberries. (But she always says that so I'm not convinced.) We do still have quite a few green berries so I'm not predicting the end date yet.

All this means is that if you don't have your quota yet, later this week would be a great time to come out and fill out your stash.

And as always, don't forget the sunscreen, a good picking hat, and your sense of adventure!
We look forward to seeing you soon...
Melissa

Weather, Blueberries Looking Nice at Farmer Mac's

2011-05-22T22:07:00.003-04:00

We've gotten this season off to a good start. Many of you should have received our postcards saying that we are officially open. We had a great first weekend and are looking forward to Memorial Weekend coming up.

The weather is supposed to be hot tomorrow but getting gradually cooler as the week progresses. I hope they aren't just teasing as it was around 90 today and should be that again tomorrow. No rain in the forecast for the Wrightsville Beach Farmers Market on Monday. If you're not otherwise occupied, come on out and see what's going on. We'll be there just on the other side of the drawbridge with other market vendors from 8am - 1pm.

Or come out to the farm and pick you own! We have a nice crop in the back field. The front field is skimpy because the plants themselves are puny. This will be the last harvest on the remaining taller bushes in the front field. As soon as harvest ends, we'll pull out the rest of those plants and replace them with the nursery stock that we have growing around the farm in too many places to mention.

It seems like we've been in the grow-out phase for a very long time! We started in 2005 with a small nursery section to begin our staggered transition over a multiple year progression across the field. Then the frost of 2007 not only wiped out our nursery stock, it damaged the Oneals which have been our signature blueberries since we got this operation started. Those mature plants have deteriorated every year since then but many of them are still hanging in, producing fruit for your family and ours.

Now that we've finally gotten enough nursery stock to replace them, we'll be completing that transition this year. Next year we'll work on the transition of the old Croatan variety in the back field. We've got some new Croatan plants in pots around the yard that can be planted in addition to the new varieties that we are going to try. In the back half of the front field we have New Hanover plants. This variety is about the same season as the Croatan but it is more durable in a rainy season that what we see with the Croatan variety.

And if this is way too much information than you ever wanted to know about a blueberry, don't worry! You don't have to remember any of it. Just remember this. We have been serving this community for the past 26 years and we hope to continue to provide the highest quality, best tasting blueberries that you can find anywhere. While we're doing that, we'll also keep your children entertained with farm animals and outdoor life while you are with us. We might even provide our own kids to help model the way of picking the best blueberries money can buy. They love that job!

Farmer Mac's Opening Today

2011-05-19T06:37:00.002-04:00

I put the open signs out last night, so we are now officially open!

Mom and I were picking in the back field yesterday afternoon and there were more buckets of blueberries per row there than in our early variety. This is the earliest we've had more than a bucket of ripe berries per row in the Croatan variety at this date in the year...ever!

What this means is that we are validating my earlier posting that this will be an early start, probably early finish year. Come on out and fill up your buckets with large, sweet, juicy blueberries. They are as fine a crop right now as I've ever seen.

And I know this may be a disappointment to some of you as it is to me...Farmer Mac is penning up the chickens. He's building a nice chicken yard with a coop that they will be safe in, so it's ok. It's just, for me, they have been free to come and go as they please and sleep where they please for several years and to now restrict them to a specific area is a bit disheartening. However, I'd rather they be confined and safe than eaten alive by the wildlife.

On a lighter note, the baby chicks are growing like chicks do. As they have been well played with by all the kids on Berry Patch Road, they should be easy to catch and hold when you get here.

Hope to see you soon!
Melissa

Blueing Blueberries in the Fields!

2011-05-16T13:30:00.002-04:00

While we are not officially open yet, there are blue blueberries (along with red and white and green berries in much more abundance) in the field.

So if you're one of our early customers who doesn't mind walking a bit and picking a few berries from each bush, then you're welcome to come out and get started.

We'll probably officially open sometime next week but that depends on what the weather at night does.

It looks like we're going to have an abbreviated season as we have lots of berries coming on at the same time. I don't think we'll make it until June 25 which is our typical end of the season target date.

What this means for you is that if you're trying to get berries for the freezer and want to get your quota, you may want to look at Memorial week and the following as your big push to get your blueberry picking done.

Of course, I could be wrong about this, but we'll see how it goes. I normally tell customers that the first 2 weeks of June are the best blueberry picking weeks and that still falls in line with what we've got going on if you consider the week that includes June 1 instead of starting on the first full calendar week. But that's splitting hairs!

We're glad to see blue in the fields and we'll be delighted to see you again or for the first time! If you're arriving before the season starts, mom and/or I should be out there somewhere with Addison. Someone should be fairly easy to find, but if you see Farmer Mac, you'll have to catch his eye as his hearing isn't so great especially when he's concentrating on pesky weeds. Once we're officially open, you won't have to seek us out.

Hope to see you soon!
Melissa

Transplanting, egg thieves, and tornadoes

2011-04-20T19:58:00.010-04:00

We've had a busy couple of weeks at Farmer Mac's Berries. We've been busy making rows and transplanting juvenile blueberry plants into their permanent locations in both fields.

We were working on Saturday to move blueberry plants from their nursery locations into their permanent places in the back field before the promised rains came. We figured we'd save on the watering by letting it rain on them. We were just at the point of mulching them in with pine straw when the wind started whipping up pretty good. We turned around and looked behind us at the nearly completed rows and saw the pine straw swirling up off the tops of the rows and around the field. Farmer Mac got disgusted and left the untouched bales of pine straw right where they were and went into the house. :)

We left off working for the day and came back to it on Monday. It didn't turn out as bad as we suspected, and didn't take long to clean up, but we also didn't get the promised rain. We had storms and tornadoes pretty much all around us in North Carolina, but none here! Hardly enough rain to settle the dust. But no hail and no tornado so all in all, we'll take the watering job we thought we were going to get out of doing!

How did you fare during the storm? Feel free to share your stories and experiences with us.

Then I went to collect eggs from the egg house. Remember we can't really call it a henhouse or chicken coop because the chickens roost in the tree instead of the building, they only use it for laying eggs. Well, the chicken that had been setting on a nest (and yes, that's setting, not sitting, meaning she was trying to hatch out her eggs) was gone as were all the eggs in the entire egg house. When I say all the eggs, I mean the chicken eggs, the wooden eggs, and the marble eggs. Gone. All of them. Chickens too for that matter. Not a one is sight.

All the farm kids know to leave the nest eggs (the wooden and marble eggs) in the boxes when they collect eggs, so that isn't how they disappeared. Nobody else collected eggs this week. We put our heads together and decied it must be an egg thief. The question then was whether it was a fox or a snake? Since I can't imagine a fox taking the wooden and marble eggs, I have to assume that the egg snake has a very bad case of indigestion right about now!

I don't know much about egg eating snakes. I know there's one called a chicken snake but there are others who also like eggs. I hope this won't be a common occurrence because I have no desire to find a live trap for a snake! If you have a suggestion for getting rid of snakes without using a snakicide or a gun, I'd be glad to hear of it! Feel free to share.

Oh, and one last thing for today. I found out what our style of chicken living is called. We don't have free range chickens, we have open range. Free range means the chickens are penned up but can go outside in a small designated space. Open range means they are not in a pen at all and can pretty much go where they want. That's our chickens! They rule the farmyard. We hope to be getting new chicks in soon as we have, in fact, lost some of our chickens to the aforementioned fox. Shawn is talking about getting a live trap to move him off into Holly Shelter (and I'm ok with that). I'll update you as we progress with that.

Glad to be back in the ramp up mode for blueberry season. We hope this is the last of our small crop years for a long time to come. Starting next year, we should have consecutive years of increasing size harvest due to the increasing size of our juvenile plants that will be of fruit bearing size.

Melissa

Fall is for Transplanting at Farmer Mac's Berries

2010-11-16T13:04:00.002-05:00

The leaves are falling, the blueberry plants themselves are turning a marvelous shade of dark red, and the dormant season is quickly approaching.

Last year about this time, we had a planting party where volunteers helped us plant 4,200 cuttings. We put them into empty rows and nursery sections of the fields. Most of them have weathered the summer quite well. We lost some plants to the extremely dry climate we've had this year, but no more than would be expected.

For those of you who were here during the summer, you saw much of the rejuvenation process that we are undergoing. We've cleared out rows and transplanted large plants into empty spots in parts of the field. The rows that we cleared out will be the home of the new plants in the nursery sections. We'll allow the empty rows to overwinter without plantings to allow the soil to rest up for the growth spurts ahead when we put the two year old plants into their final field spots.

Right now, we're moving the last of the large plants to their new locations. We hope to have this process completed by December, just in time to start our winter pruning.

We hope to have a larger crop of the Oneal variety next year as our 4 year plants will be producing more fruit than they did this year.

But as the holidays approach, don't forget to take some of those blueberries out of the freezer to make blue-cranberry sauce or blueberry pies. They go great with all holiday meals!

Melissa

Thanks again for another wonderful season!

2010-06-21T13:20:00.006-04:00

We are officially closed today (Thursday June 24). What that means is that we have taken all of our signs down and we have only a few blueberries left in the fields and we will begin pruning the fields this Saturday.

We had perfect weather this winter and spring for blueberry plants so we had a nice crop of blueberries.

In addition to that, we had a nice crop of customers to harvest them at just the right times so we didn't get into an overripe or under-ripe situation as can sometimes happen on a u-pick farm.

We appreciate your business and your friendship. This is a family operation and we consider our valued customers part of our extended family as our kids grow up knowing many of you.

We look forward to serving you next year and hope that you have a blessed life between now and then.
Melissa

Happy Father's Day from Farmer Mac's Berries

2010-06-20T07:49:00.004-04:00

Blueberry picking is an activity that can be done with dads! Actually, we have low turnout on Father's Day but we do always have customers show up to pick blueberries on this special day.

The thunderstorms from Wilmington and west made a brief appearance yesterday in the form of a light rainfall for about 10 minutes. We've got some residual water on the leaves, but the fields look good.

Also, it's cooler this morning which bodes well for a nice day all the way around.

Yesterday we had 3 new ducklings born so we corralled them up and put them in a holding pen. Of course, we caught the babies but not the mom as we were hoping she would just come to where here babies were. Not! What actually happened was that the babies crawled right through the chicken wire that was supposed to be small enough to contain them! So we rounded them up again and were more successful the second time.

I ran down to Dollar General and bought a swimming pool for them and we got them all set up with an igloo to live in. This mom is not so sure about these modern conveniences as other duck mothers have been. She has remained adamant that if she has to be imprisoned she will not cave to our wishes for her. I hope she changes her mind sometime today.

The funny part is that she can fly right out and if she did then her babies would follow. Guess she hasn't figured that part out yet and now by the time she does, the babies will be too big to fit through the fence holes.

Our berm wall around our tree is nearly complete. The fellas were working on getting the fill dirt under the tree roots and down on the far side of the tree yesterday afternoon. I hope after all this work and engineering and expense that the tree makes it through the next hurricane!

Well, Happy Father's Day to all of you dads out there! You're special and I hope you take this day to celebrate your contributions to the lives of your loved ones.

Melissa

Farmer Mac's Blueberries still available into next week

2010-06-18T06:57:00.005-04:00

Last week we thought there would be a chance that the blueberries would be gone by Saturday. However, there are still plenty of blue and green berries out there for someone who doesn't mind the heat to harvest.

The berries we have now are the ones in the middle of the bushes where you have to move the leaves aside and find them hiding in the shade. Lots of people think these are the best tasting blueberries on the bush and I think I have to agree.

The best time of day to come out to pick berries is between 7 and 8 am and many days during the season we have a parking lot full of cars by 7:20. That makes me happy because then I don't have to worry about people getting overheated in the fields.

If that's too early for you, let me say it a different way. Between 11:30 and about 3pm we have very few brave and hearty souls who choose to pick blueberries in this late spring heat. Can you believe it's not even officially summer yet???

We do have the late afternoon folks who come out between 4 and 8pm and that is also a good time for picking blueberries as it gets cooler as you go.

However, earlier this week the yellow biting flies made their appearance and they are most noticeable in the early evening. For those of you not familiar with them, let me describe them for you. They look like a slightly larger version of a regular black house fly except they have a yellow tint to them. Their main mission in life is to take a big bite out of my legs and arms. They are nuisance flies in the same category for me as mosquitos and sand gnats.

But not wanting to end on a bug note, let me remind you to go to the Blueberry Festival on Saturday in Burgaw, NC. Burgaw is a beautiful old town with a courthouse square where the center of festivities are. In the last couple of years, it has spread out more to encompass the Historic Train Depot and the railroad bed and the area from there to the courthouse.

There is free parking at the government complex on Business 117 and a free Trolley ride to several drop spots around festival activities. The trolley is a neat activity even if you don't use one of the park and ride lots. And you'll save parking frustration by choosing this option as the downtown area is choked with cars pretty much all day long.

Blueberries going fast at Farmer Mac's

2010-06-11T11:15:00.004-04:00

The season is starting to wind down at Farmer Mac's Berries. We have about another week of picking here before we close up shop for this year. If you haven't gotten your blueberries, now is the time to come out and pick!

Don't forget your sunscreen and a hat as it's pretty hot out in the field. The good thing is that there's almost always a breeze that helps keep things and people cool.

Also, we have buckets to pick in but it's a good idea during these hot days to bring containers (and not plastic bags) to take your berries home in. Just a helpful tip to keep your berries looking as good as possible until you get a chance to eat them.

Thanks to everyone who has come out this year, both long time friends and first timers to Farmer Mac's. We enjoy talking to all of you and having you out to see our menagerie and to pick our blueberries. We look forward to seeing you again next season and into the future.

Melissa

Great Picking at Farmer Mac's right now!

2010-06-03T07:08:00.005-04:00

This week and next will be the best time to pick blueberries on our farm this year. We have lots of berries ready for you to come and put in your buckets and baskets!

We're having a very good year this year. We started about a week earlier than last year so we may not make it all the way to June 25th this year, but we'll have to see what this weather does.

Rain, rain, rain. We've had a very misty season this year so far. At least some rain nearly every day. That is very good for the blueberry plants but not so great for trying to get the fruit harvested since it keeps people at home and blueberries on the bushes.

We have another new addition on the farm. One of our mama goats gave birth yesterday to a baby girl. Both are doing fine. Be sure to take a peek in the nursery pen when you come out. Aren't kids just the cutest things around? Watching the babies jump all around and play is the fun of having goats in my opinion!

Quote of the week: My husband said not to come and pick any more blueberries because they get gone too fast. (See me scratching my head on this one!)

And don't forget the NC Blueberry Festival in Burgaw. It is on Saturday June 19 this year.

Hope to see you soon!
Melissa

Lots of Blue Blueberries at Farmer Mac's Berries!

2010-05-26T14:55:00.004-04:00

Now is a great time to pick blueberries. There are lots of blue berries all over the field and buckets ready and waiting to be harvested.

Don't forget containers to bring you blueberries home in (we have picking buckets) and your sunscreen. And if you judge by this past week, an umbrella!

We have 2 new farm members arrive this week. Sarge and Lacey are a pair of female geese that were given to us by a nice u-pick customer. When he got them, they were supposed to be a male/female pair but as happens lots of time with animals, they were not billed correctly (pun not intended).

Our new chicks are now about 6 weeks old and are no longer yellow but they are still cute and the kids love catching one for you to hold.

Our twin goat kids are about a month old and are dancing all around. We have at least one more on the way and judging from the way the mother goat looks, she'll probably give birth during the blueberry season. Likely sooner rather than later so stay update for birth announcements.

And on the customer front, we've had folks on the farm from as far away as Ashe County in North Carolina. Nationwide visitors include folks from New Mexico, Colorado, and Maine. To my knowledge, we've only had one international visitor so far and she is from Norway. I'm very glad to see that we're known around the world for our delicious blueberries!

Hope to see you soon. Call us if you have questions or need more information.
Melissa

Farmer Mac's Now Open for U-Pick!

2010-05-22T06:51:00.002-04:00

We are officially open today! The weather has been wonderful, a little rain and a lot of warm days have made the blue in the blueberries.

Don't forget the sunscreen, maybe a hat, and a container to bring your berries home in. We have buckets to pick in and takeaway bags but it's better on the blueberries to have a container instead of a plastic bag.

Happy Blueberry Picking!

Opening for Blueberry U-Pick Soon!

2010-05-13T17:17:00.003-04:00

We have had good warm weather for the last week or so and the blueberries are just starting to turn color.

We anticipate opening for upick at least for abreviated hours probably on Monday May 24.

Our baby chicks are growing nicely. We have a dozen and they are in an outside pen now. The goat twins are also about six weeks old and are bouncing around like little Jack Russell terriers.

We may be at the Poplar Grove Farmers Market on Wednesday with the very earliest of the ripe berries.

Hope to see you here soon! We're excited about the start of blueberry season!

Past the Frost, Waiting for the Blue in the Blueberries

2010-04-20T08:38:00.002-04:00

The flowering process is nearly over this week. We have some bloom left on the Croatans (blueberries in the back field). We made it through the spring, at least so far, without frost damage and that's always a positive sign going into the harvest.

The only two weather related maladies we've seen between here and picking time is a tropical storm and hail. Each of these have only happened once in the past 25 years at this time of the year. Maybe we can call them freak storms and leave it at that.

This year the deer are extra diligent to visit. We usually have deer tracks all around and the bushes pruned along the field edges. This year instead of eating just the leaves, they've also stripped off the blossoms on the Oneals we planted at the left edge of the back field. This was to be the first harvest year on them as they are now 4 years old and just mature enough to harvest. The deer had other ideas so we'll have to wait until next year on them.

This means our Oneal crop will be thinner than we anticipated this year. If this is your favorite variety, make a special effort to get what you can but bear in mind that we have this challenge in addition to the crop rotation that we are in the middle stages of completing.

Transition from old plants to new is once again on a smooth track. Remember we were in the transition phase of removing old plants and planting new when we had that Easter freeze a couple of years ago? So instead of having staggered plantings to get us through this downtime phase, all of our small plants are virtually the same age.

To recap: blueberries have a useful life of about 25 years, at least the ones we have on our farm. This is the 25th year for many of them. We started about 5 years ago transitioning parts of the fields into new plantings to have growth to a harvestable size by the time the old plants needed to be removed. We still have old plants that need to be removed but we've kept them a little longer for some harvest while we are waiting for the small plants to mature. We appreciate your dedication during this process as it is a bit trying for us all.

Can you believe it is our 25th year of harvest? We have seen some of the same faces each year for the entirety of that time and new customers every year who become dedicated farm visitors and friends. I wish we knew all of the charter members of this blueberry farm! If you are one, let us know when you come out this year.

Happy Spring! We had twin goatlets (kids) born earlier this month and 2 sets of ducklings this week. Hopefully the turtles are not in large number in the pond or they will feast on our delicately beautiful babies!

Wonderful, White, Winter Day

2010-02-13T07:24:00.003-05:00

I have to confess that a white day on a Saturday creates less stress than on any other day of the week. Kids out of school, no off the farm work requiring a road trip, just the normal craziness of the farm family to enjoy.

Last night it started snowing, oh somewhere around 9:00 or 9:30. Nobody was monitoring the clock. The kids and I were at grandma's house and Wyatt was just finishing up his AR reading for the day. Melody called on the phone and said to go run outside because it was snowing. Two kids and a grandma went out side and the report was 2 flakes per minute. This was enough to slow the final pages of reading down considerably.

Then Melody and Clayton came over about 15 minutes later and they had snow in their hair! At that point Grandma went into sergeant mode. We must move the horses, no waiting, no discussion, the horses have to go to the barn. So she rounded up some troops and moved them from the pasture to the barn.

I don't recall a single mention of the goats who do have dog igloos in their pond enclosure to weather it out in. I also don't think the chickens were given too much consideration. However in defense of the situation, if the chickens are tough enough or dumb enough to roost in the oak tree rather than the 2, count them two, chicken coops we've made for them, then they must be ok to fend for themselves.

So in the light of the car headlights we used to move horses, we decided that it was a good idea to go ahead and have a snowball fight since the white stuff would not likely last until morning. By that time Jonathan was out there too so there were 5 adults and 2 kids all raising the snow up off the porch, the fences, the grass, the cars and so on just about as fast as it was coming down.

We started with those big, no huge, fluffy white flakes floating all around that are about half the size of the palm of your hand. As it was coming down, it was rapidly turning the ground white. This, for around these parts, was a bit unusual as snow typically melts to water as soon as it touches anything. The fluffy snow lasted for as long as we played outside. Then when we came in, it changed to the small, straight down, more like sleet than snow. I was convinced it would be gone by morning and that it was a good thing we had taken the time to play in the dark.

Not sorry to be wrong! The kids got me up this morning with questions about where their snow boots were and did I have a ruler so they could measure how deep the snow is.

Oh, I see the first two brave goats under a tree and now that the corn is out there, I see ducks coming up for a sneak attack. Guess they all survived their first snowstorm. And what else do I see? The horse briggade moving the horses back out of the barn and back to where they were last night. Hmmm. Some things just don't bear too much contemplation.

Got any snow stories or experiences you'd like to share? How about the brainless decisions folks make in the snow? Got any of them?

I can start: I worked at a building supply company the last time we had a big snow. Was that 1989 or '90? At any rate, three very diligent delivery drivers, who had not heard from the boss, made their way into the shop in about a foot of snow. One slid out on the way and had to get roadside assistance (to the tune of $150). Once they all got there, the place was closed up tight. They couldn't understand why they shouldn't have reported to work since the boss didn't call and tell them to stay home. Hmmm. Let me think. Foot of snow on the roads. Ice underneath. Building supply deliveries. Well you can guess how that ended. A week or more of no work for any of us.

Anybody want to take a guess on how much bread and milk is currently in Food Lion? Or did the snow start late enough in the day to nix the trip to the store for emergency rations? Hmm, maybe.

Ok, gotta go. Everybody is outside without me and I don't want to be the only warm body in the house.

Have fun in the snow, be careful, stay home, play outside and enjoy it while it lasts. It'll be another couple of decades before we see this much snow here again!

Melissa

Rain and More Rain, but at least we're not paying for irrigation!

2010-01-04T10:45:00.004-05:00

Well the holidays are over and we've got all the new plants settled in for the winter. In November, we bought a greenhouse and we've been trying ever since to get it built and the panels in place. We have been plagued with rain and more rain! Is this happening to you?

I remember earlier in the year saying we were having the wettest period on record. I can say with absolute certainty that this must be true though I don't have the data to prove it. Our pond only overflowed twice in 2009, but it's been at max capacity for most of the fall and into this early part of winter. It's so muddy that I'm scared the garbage truck will suspend our service for fear of getting stuck trying to turn around! Oh horrors!

Actually I have to laugh about this. I finally broke down and started paying for trash service. With Shawn stationed in Virginia and with all the other work going on, I just don't have the time or inclination to haul trash to the transfer station. Now that I have this service, I can't imagine what I was thinking in trying to save a few dollars earlier on. So goes the life of a farmer, always pinching pennies and saving nickels to make ends meet.

So what do you do to cut costs? I decided that I would no longer eat dinner out when Shawn's away so that I could pay my sister to occasionally help me with the housework. Then I decided that I didn't need to eat fast food to and from work every time I go in to the office. So now I only eat breakfast and lunch at the drive-through twice a week and I save the extra money to cover the trash service. The only question is what day of the week to either skip food or pack a bag.

And yes, this sounds a bit extreme, but it's all just rationalization in my mind to justify the extra cost. I mean, it's not like I'll starve to death if I don't have McDonalds.

Speaking of McDonalds, I think it's quite a joke that people blame them for obesity. I've been eating fast food for 20 years for a good portion of the workday meals in my life and I have to say that though I'd like to lose a pound or 5, I'm not anywhere near obese. So what could I sue them for???? hmmm...not getting fat on greasy hamburgers?

On the healthy foods subject, I got a book for Christmas on how to make edible fruit/veggie arrangements. It looks really neat and I can't wait for someone to get sick so I can try it out. Oooh, that might not be the right sentiment. Maybe I can't wait for someone to have a baby so I can try it out or a graduation or what? When would you make something like this for someone?

Thanks for reading! I hope we have a happy 2010 together...
So long for now,
Melissa

Absolutely Delicious Blue-Cranberry Sauce

2009-11-26T08:58:00.003-05:00

Remember that recipe I posted last summer. Well it's so far buried in the stack of old postings that I didn't think anyone could find it so I pulled it out and am posting it again.

The lady at Sams Club asked me what my recipe was when I went in to buy cranberries yesterday evening. She said she had never made homemade cranberry sauce and wanted to know what I added to the recipe on the bag. I told her and then thought it was a good idea to just post it again here.

Blue Cranberry Sauce Recipe
Prep Time: 20 minutes

Uses: Can be used any time cranberry sauce or cranberry jelly would be used. It can be served warm or cold and our family likes it both ways.

Yield: 9 servings

Ingredients:
1 (12 ounce) package fresh cranberries
1 cup water
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1 pint fresh or frozen blueberries
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preparation:
Wash and pick over cranberries. Place in a medium saucepan with water, and sugar. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, stir and simmer for 10 minutes or until cranberries burst.

Slightly mash the cranberries with the back of a wooden spoon to insure all skins are broken. Add the cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. Mix well.

Remove from heat and mix in the blueberries (don't be afraid to break a few, but don't over mash either) and the pecans. This is where frozen blueberries make sense because they don't break apart as readily as the fresh berries do. The goal is to get them stirred in and at the same time to maintain the blueberry shape as much as possible. The blueberries and pecans don't need to be cooked, just added to the mix after the cranberries have exploded. The sauce will thicken as it cools.

Transfer to a bowl, cool slightly and place plastic wrap directly on top of sauce to cover. Refrigerate until chilled.

Planting Party Weekend at the Blueberry Farm Day 2

2009-11-07T18:18:00.025-05:00

Yesterday, we planted and installed temporary irrigation on 1400 blueberry plants which ended up being about 1/3 of the total plants that we acquired this weekend. Farmer Mac, Clarence, Bob, Bradley, Clayton and Carla installed irrigation line and connected it to the well.

Today's crew did more of the same then connected the system and saw shooting geysers along the connection points. Needless to say, some of us were all liberally sprinkled with irrigation water before it was over.

Has this ever happened to you? You're going along minding your own business and then suddenly the sky opens up and from one minute to the next, you're completely soaking wet.

This morning we had a completely new crew of planting volunteers. The nieces from next door arrived excited and ready to go at 8:00. Wyatt, Hollie and Kylie started out with us on the planting until the adults arrived.

Mom, Martha S., Melody, Shawn, Wayne and Nina were the volunteers working with the morning planting crew. Then about lunchtime the reinforcements arrived. We added Ashley, Keith, Joy, David, Blaine, Bree, Taylor, and Maali. Although you can't really consider mom, Shawn or Maali volunteers since, along with Farmer Mac, Wyatt and myself, they're part of the Farmer Mac's crew, I do want to acknowledge the hard work and effort they put in too. :)

Bree and Taylor were so cute. Once they realized that work was being done and this wasn't just a play date, they came out to the field. Taylor said "I'm here to work." Bree and Maali chimed in too.

They started as plant runners and then graduated to planting. It lasted all of about 20 minutes, but it was good while it lasted and they were soooo cute!

Billy and Troy showed up on their motorcycles in the mid afternoon, but more as a cheer leading squad than as part of the working crew. Troy was a plant runner for a while and Billy dug some holes and they both took a ration of teasing from the rest of us, but it was all in good fun.

Julie and Karen made lunch and afternoon snacks for everyone and Martha and Rob cooked summer. We had a big discussion on which made dinner. Do you consider dinner the noontime meal or the evening meal? We were divided about 50/50 based on the people in the discussion.

At any rate, about 3:14pm we had planted the very last plant 3 times. What this means is we thought we were done the first time and then we found another plant in the bottom of the box. We planted it then found another one.

Click here to see the posting from the beginning of this planting party weekend.

Planting Party Weekend at Farmer Mac's

2009-11-07T08:16:00.007-05:00

This weekend is planting weekend at Farmer Mac's Berries. We are in a transition phase on the farm. Blueberries have a life of about 25 years and next year will be our 25th year. Can you believe we've been doing this for that long?

Are any of you customers from the very first days when we were selling out of the packing shed that we turned into the downstairs of my house? Remember the garage doors on both ends and the drive through lane in the middle for the ancient green volvo station wagon we used to use to bring harvested blueberries in out of the field? Do any of you remember Ralph Sanderlin? He was the best friend and farm hand that we had in those days. I still miss Ralph.

Anyway, I'm sidetracking myself with memory lane.

We started about 3 years ago planting small plants to replace the aging bushes on the farm. Our plan was to convert the front field first then the back field. To that end, we started a nursery on the far end of the front field with O'Neal plants and we actually transitioned about 1/2 of the field into new plants. Then the Easter freeze wiped out half of our plants right away and the residual effects have nearly finished off the rest. Many of you may know that some customers dubbed the sad, puny looking O'Neal plants as our 'Charlie Brown' plants. We've now taken out all of these Charlie Browns from the far corner of the back field and have replanted with new O'Neal plants. We did that yesterday on day one of marathon planting weekend.

Earlier, in October, mom and I moved all of the sticks (small New Hanover plants) that were growing in the back field nursery into their permanent locations in the front field. The rest of plants for the back field will also go into the front field for right now as it has more free space than the back field does. We put permanent plants in the 4 row nursery section in the back field where the New Hanover plants were temporarily residing.

So what this sounds like is a confusing way to say we've been, and continue to be, planting fools. It also says that we move plants around alot. If we were larger with more land at our disposal, this wouldn't be necessary. Since we aren't and don't have more space, we are trying to disrupt production as little as possible. We have a 3 year transition plan in place where each year we'll have reduced production, but by the 3rd year we should be able to start harvesting on what we already have in the ground. After this transition phase, our production should ramp back up to what we consider normal levels.

I hope that all of you will bear with us during this renewal process. It happens only every 20 - 25 years, but with the freeze problems coming right at the very worst time possible, our transition phase expanded from 3 to 6 years.

And if you're not busy, you're welcome to join us on the farm today. We've had such support and assistance offered to help get these plants in the ground given the short window of opportunity to ensure the healthiness of the bare root plants. We've had lots of help already and we are truly and honestly grateful for the generosity of our friends and neighbors for volunteering their services to us. Some helped with row preparation, some with planting, others with irrigation, and just as important, some with cooking and feeding us all and with child care. Every single one of these volunteers are appreciated.

I had photos but something happened to the conversion and they are now gone. Grrrrr! I'll take more today and upload them this evening. The Planting Extraordinairre Group for Friday for whom we are deeply indebted include: Lars, Stan, Mary, Clayton, Bradley, Carla, Clarence, Bob, Margaret, Hollie, Lou and Mariah.

The year of the floods at the blueberry farm

2009-09-09T13:34:00.004-04:00

I think we've had more rain this year than most. I remember one weekend during the blueberry season where we had more than 5 inches in an afternoon. Do any of you remember that deluge and what you were doing at that time?

My kids got out their boogie boards and skim boards and were running up and down the blueberry rows pretending they were at the ocean catching waves. Wyatt had a friend over and they all three took turns splashing and getting wet and trying to stand up on the skim board.

We also had a bunch of blueberry customers that ran out of the field. We had others that arrived during the rain and went out into the field with their buckets and umbrellas and picked blueberries! They had come from Morrisville, Apex and other places further afield and didn't want to go home empty-handed. Can't say that I blame them.

If you have a fun story to share about being caught in the rain, feel free to post it as a comment and share with us.

This weekend we had over 8 inches of rain. Because we were not experiencing drought conditions from all the other rain we've had this year, we couldn't handle that much at one time. The pond overflowed into the ditch and the entire driveway was under water for several hours on Sunday afternoon. By the time we went to bed the water had receded to the point where we could get the cars out. We typically don't see that much standing water except in hurricane or tropical storm conditions. Can you remember when the last great flood was around here? I was trying to think what storm was the last good sized one that hit us but couldn't put my finger on it.

I'll post the photos from both of these rain events later this afternoon after I get the rest of my work done.

Escape Artists at the Blueberry Farm

2009-08-26T16:58:00.003-04:00

One thing we usually tell customers is that the fences are to keep the animals safe from people, not necessarily to keep the animals contained. In some cases, we've gone so far as to say that the animals can get out at will, so please don't provoke them to do so.

Now, in all reality, this usually only happens occasionally, or only with certain of the animals. This summer, however, there must have been Houdini lessons for the animals at Farmer Mac's because we don't seem to be able to contain anything except the horses.

The smallest of the goats have always had an escape hatch. Many of you may have seen the babies wandering around the parking lot. I got home from work two days ago and all the goats were out. I thought at the time that someone must have left the gate open because the daddy goat usually doesn't escape. Then yesterday when I got home, I realized my mistake.

All the goats were out except the daddy. I was over looking at the chicken pen and as I was walking back across the yard, I had to stop and watch the progress being made inside the pond area fence.

Mr. Goat stood up on that big rock we have leaning up against the inside corner of the fence. He put his front right hoof on the bottom wire of the fence, balanced himself and then put his left front hoof right beside it. He walked himself up the fence until he was at the second from the top wire. Then he carefully lifted his right foot over and put it right beside the left. He repeated this action with his left so that both of his front legs were on the outside of the fence and his hind legs were on the top of the rock. He gathered himself made a lunge over the fence. His back legs brushed the top wire but he made it to the ground on all 4 hoofs, his legs buckling a bit as he landed. Slickest thing I've seen him do all year.

You'd think that would be the end of the story, but no. The chickens have all managed to get themselves enough flying strength to escape the roost at will. The one that had the broken leg (BJ, our lab/retreiver who loves babies, carried it around in his mouth when it was a chick and accidentally crunched down too hard) doesn't do this as often as the other chickens, but they were all outside the enclosure this morning at feeding time.

So between ducks who were only contained until they grew large enough to escape the hawks, dogs who don't know the meaning of a fence, unconfined chickens, and escaping goats, we have a yard full of animals at any given time during the day. Good thing the dogs are used to living with chickens and ducks or it would be a difficult decision on which to decide between!

August Happenings on the Blueberry Farm

2009-08-06T12:00:00.005-04:00

Michigan was beautiful, as always, but they are having the coldest summer on record this year so we nearly froze to death. I remember thinking that I don't complain about the heat in the summer because I complain about the cold in the winter but I'm freezing and it's summer!

Funny story about that. We were driving back a couple of days ago. Our kids had been gone a total of 5 weeks, 2 to South Dakota and 3 to Michigan. By the time we made it back to the North Carolina border, they were completely acclimated to northern temperatures. Maali was sitting on the front seat of the van. I looked over at her and she looked like a hot puppy with her tongue hanging out and her shoulders hunched forward. She looked at me and said, "Mom, it's really hot." I sort of laughed at her and said back that it's summertime and we're back in North Carolina. It's hot in North Carolina in the summer. That's why we go to Michigan for a month because it's not so hot there. She thought about this for a minute and then said, "Maybe we should go back to Michigan!"

Even though it has been hot here, there are still things going on around the blueberry farm. In July, we built a chicken coop for our chickens that no longer look like pullets but are almost full grown birds. Hopefully they will be laying eggs within the next couple of months.

It's been too hot to remove plants from the field so we decided to wait until September to take the first field out and replant. The baby plants growing in the back field are weathering the heat pretty well, but we've got about a 25-30% loss rate on them which is typical.

We have our first farm birthday party scheduled for next weekend. One of our customers who will be turning 2 years old wants to have his birthday with the goats, chickens and ducks. His mom asked if they could have it here and we agreed. What fun we hope they have!

I'm finally getting more dirt in my front yard so I can get some grass to grow. Farmer Mac has been cutting a shallow trench along the edge of both fields for water to better run off and he's been putting the soil he removes from there in my front yard. It already looks much better and we haven't come anywhere near the grass planting stage yet.

I finally took those buckets of Lake Superior rocks that have been littering the yard and parking area and made them into a border around my flower bed by the house. I was about 10 feet short of being able to go from the front door all the way around to the back door, but I know where more are. :)

With any luck we can finish this retaining wall around the back and then free up a couple of more parking spaces in the driveway for next summer. I haven't decided what to do with our corner garden in the middle of the parking curve. We didn't plant this past spring and I'm thinking about removing it so we can have a better 2 car width around the parking lot curve. Maybe instead of having a big triangle garden there, I'll cut it off to about 2 feet depth right along the pond fence. Do goats eat geraniums? I think some wall baskets attached to the fence right there might be nice and I love red geraniums. Hmmm. I'll have to ask someone.

Beyond that, we're trying to avoid the heat as much as possible and to keep the fields watered and growing strong so we have a good harvest next year.

Thanks for a wonderful season!

2009-06-26T21:57:00.004-04:00

Sorry I was out of town last week so I didn't get to create a post.

We are officially closed for the season. We appreciate your patronage and your friendship and hope that you are enjoying the blueberries you've stored away for the winter and that you'll be back next year.

And by officially closed, I mean that we're done with that phase between when we take the open sign down and when there are truly no berries left. Closed means there are no berries left in the field even for the diehards out there.

Our petition to reduce the speed limit on NC 210 is picking up steam now that the season is over. The county has it on its agenda for July and that's the first real step in the process of creating change. Thanks to everyone who supports this effort to keep us all safe as we travel into and around the Hampstead area.

I'll dig up more recipes soon and post them here.

NC Blueberry Festival this coming Saturday

2009-06-14T09:19:00.007-04:00

Again, before I get started with this post, I need to give you the blueberry field update as of Monday evening (June 15).

We are pretty well picked out. We have green berries that need a few days to ripen, so we're trying to encourage folks to wait a few days and come out on Thursday or Friday when they've had a chance to turn blue again.

This time of the season is ideal for folks who want to come out to spend an hour or so with their kids or grandkids picking a few berries and looking at the animals or to get those last few pounds in the freezer for the winter. So if you want to do this, feel free to stop by but don't expect to pick more than a few pounds of berries.

Saturday June 20 is the NC Blueberry Festival in Burgaw, NC

This is a fun event with a family style atmosphere and a blueberry flair.

There are blueberry desserts, jam, jelly, and other blueberry delectables; arts and crafts; food vendors; childrens activities; entertainment; all set on an old-time courthouse square that has been the focal point of movies and is a reminisce of eras past and that has shade trees older than the republic.

Don't miss the trolley rides!

Another cool thing that my kids and I like to do is to park out at the government complex where the Health Department and the Agriculture buildings are and ride the trolley. Sometimes when we get hot and tired, we ride the trolley around and around just to get a break from the crowds and for the experience. The trolley is free though of course tips are appreciated for the drivers. The Trolley goes around the Courthouse Square and down to the Train Depot and then around to the parking area at the government complex. Last year, the antique vendors were at the train depot and I assume they will be there this year as well.

Another experience some folks get excited about is helicopter rides. They have moved around the location of the helicopter landing site, so you'll have to get a map and find it. Last time I checked, it was at the school and there was a mamoth Marine helicopter (I don't know the correct terminology, but one of those really big, terrorist intimidating monsters that you wouldn't want appearing over the top of the treeline pointed at you.) out there with this little tiny 2 person helicopter that gives rides over Burgaw for a fee. I have to confess that the puddle jumper looked like a toy compared to the fighting machine, but they keep a constant stream of riders throughout the day.

For more information on other specifics about the festival and the activities, go to their website at http://www.ncblueberryfestival.com/ and see what you can find.

Afternoon rain showers

Expect lots of traffic throughout the day. Also expect that there will be a brief rain shower in the afternoon because it's that time of year. Find a place to wait it out because most of the crowd will leave and then the courthouse square will be yours for the taking. These showers usually only last 5 - 15 minutes or just long enough to outlast many of the tourists.

Bring sunscreen, a sunny attitude, and prepare to have some fun!

What do people do with all those blueberries?

2009-06-07T06:48:00.021-04:00

Before I get too carried away with words, I should say that this week through next weekend will be the best time to pick blueberries at Farmer Mac's. We'll likely be open through about June 25, but the last week or so the berries become harder to find and slower to pick. So if you're thinking about coming to get blueberries, drop something out of your schedule and make time to pick berries this week!

So what do people do with all those blueberries?

We have lots of types of customers here at Farmer Mac's.

Some pick only what they think they will be able to eat fresh. The quantity in these buckets is usually somewhere between 3/4 pound and 5 pounds. We also have the fresh only customers who come out each day with a little bowl to fill up. They're here almost every day to pick berries to eat that day. There are also the folks who come out to pick 1 full bucket a day or 1 bucket each if it's a couple that is picking. They do this multiple times throughout the season until they get the correct number of pounds for their frozen berry stash.

Then we have the folks who come out and pick all the berries they want for the year in one outing. These folks are typically the 30 - 40 pounders and they want to either freeze them for use in cooking or make a specific amount of jam or jelly. This customer type is the one that completely baffles the folks in the category above. They look at 5 to 7 buckets come out of the field with typically 2 people and they ask me or them what in the world they are going to do with so many blueberries. This is when you get the explanation about the jam, pie, cobbler business or the Forrest Gump litany.

There are also a few who use blueberries like we do here in my house, as an afternoon snack. When the kids get off the school bus, they come barreling down the driveway dragging bookbags in tow. The bags get dumped somewhere and snack time commences. The snack of choice is frozen blueberries in a cup. Between the 3 elementary schoolers and poor little almost 4 year old Maali who wants to go to school with the other kids so bad that she can't hardly stand it, they manage to down about a quart of berries unless they had something pretty awful at lunch then they want more. Honestly, at my house this is the most common use of frozen blueberries. When we make pancakes or waffles, Maali and I like blueberries in ours. Occasionally we'll make a batch of jam, but when we do we make a large enough batch that it usually lasts a whole year. The entire rest of the blueberry freezer is used for kid snacks and the occasional church dessert.

I have to confess, though, that there are 2 other things that I like alot but make infrequently. At Thanksgiving, I make my own cranberry sauce and it is absolutely divine. I'll dig out the recipe and add it below. I also make Blueberry Salsa. Those of you who have been to the Poplar Grove Farmers Market may have sampled some at our booth there. It's a very easy recipe that substitutes blueberries for the tomatoes and is a heavenly summer salsa that folks rave about. I keep thinking I'll enter these 2 recipes in the recipe contest but I haven't done it yet because until this year I've been on the planning committee and therefore ineligible to compete.

Blueberry Salsa Recipe
Prep Time: 15 minutes plus 1 hour to marinate

Uses: The experts say this recipe is served with grilled chicken or fish, but I have to confess that I serve it with corn chips or tortilla chips and I always end up with an empty salsa bowl, so serve it however you like.

Yield: About 3 cups

Ingredients:
2 cups chopped fresh blueberries
1 cup whole fresh blueberries
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2 seeded and minced jalapeño peppers
1/3 cup diced red bell pepper
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Preparation:
Coarsely chop 2 cups fresh blueberries. Stir chopped fresh blueberries together with all other ingredients in a large bowl. Cover and chill for 1 hour for flavor blending and until ready to serve.

Blue Cranberry Sauce Recipe
Prep Time: 20 minutes

Uses: Can be used any time cranberry sauce or cranberry jelly would be used. It can be served warm or cold and our family likes it both ways.

Yield: 9 servings

Ingredients:
1 (12 ounce) package fresh cranberries
1 cup water
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1 pint fresh or frozen blueberries
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preparation:
Wash and pick over cranberries. Place in a medium saucepan with water, and sugar. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, stir and simmer for 10 minutes or until cranberries burst.

Slightly mash the cranberries with the back of a wooden spoon to insure all skins are broken. Add the cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. Mix well.

Remove from heat and mix in the blueberries (don't be afraid to break a few, but don't over mash either) and the pecans. This is where frozen blueberries make sense because they don't break apart as readily as the fresh berries do. The goal is to get them stirred in and at the same time to maintain the blueberry shape as much as possible. The blueberries and pecans don't need to be cooked, just added to the mix after the cranberries have exploded. The sauce will thicken as it cools.

Transfer to a bowl, cool slightly and place plastic wrap directly on top of sauce to cover. Refrigerate until chilled.

Blueberries, Guided Tours, and Bug Eating Plants

2009-05-27T21:06:00.009-04:00

Blueberries
What a difference a few days and warm weather makes! We've had lots of rain at the beginning of this season, yesterday and last night included. This is good for the blueberries and the plants, but not so good for the people trying to pick the ripe fruit. When you come out to pick, remember to consider the weather and choose your footwear accordingly.

Also, while we're on the subject of footwear, I should say that this year much more than most, you need to be on the lookout for fire ants. We treated for them but this new treatment that we've had to change to takes significantly longer to work than the previous type. This means that there are still some active fire ant hills in the field. Please be mindful of this as you meander around the farm. I have to confess they were not invited guests, as just like a party crasher, they are difficult to encourage to leave.

Blueberry Marathoners
We've had many of our regular customers back this week. Great to see everyone! Some call themselves frequent flyers and they don't need info, just buckets, ties and a nod in the right direction. Many of these customers have a specific amount they want to pick to freeze for use over the course of the next year. This is especially true for the cup a day-ers who need a specific amount to make their quota for the year.

Others are in a contest to see who picks the most berries. Some of the contestants don't even know they are competing, and we've had 2 such folks here this week. The official contestants want to know if they've picked the most of any customers, so we keep an informal tally of who does what. Jerry is in the lead right now, but he's time limited as he'll only be at the beach for a short time and needs to pick all of his berries now for the whole year. The Byrnes have been out here at least 4 times and are in second place for most picked this season. I haven't seen the official contestants yet, but as soon as they get here, the race is on!

Guided Tours
Maali has been leading the tours of the farm baby viewings. She is cute doing this as her level of involvement increases in proportion to the youthfulness of the visitors. Meaning, she does a much more energetic job of trying to catch the baby ducks if there's a kid watching her. Oops, the kid is in the pen with the ducks, so I should have said a person of like age watching her. Then when she catches one, she'll let you pet it but not hold it. She does a fairly good job of holding them in two hands and without squeezing, but if you're on tour with her and see she needs some guidance in that direction, feel free to give pointers.

Bug Eating Plants
We were at the Poplar Grove Farmers Market on Wednesday selling a few blueberries. Our spot was right under one of the big, old poplar trees that grace the front yard of the old manor house. At any rate, we were standing there minding our own business, cleaning and packing berries when two old codgers came snooping around the base of the tree.

As they were inspecting the trunk they were mumbling about the best ones being near the base of a good tree. They circled the tree a couple of times and aha! grabbed something off the ground and started across the grass toward a plant stand. By this time they had garnered enough attention that a whole bunch of us followed to see what in the world they were doing.

It turns out that the one was a seller of carniverous plants and the other wanted to see it in action. The trees were good breeding grounds for the biggest ants you've ever seen in your life. So we watched as the ant was put on top of a leaf of a venus fly trap and the jaws of death snapped shut on the ant. Then once the action was all over, we all went back to what we were doing. Then a couple of hours later, my 3 year old daughter came to the market and we did the whole ritual again so she could see. It's pretty amazing what nature can devise.

Exciting Happenings at Farmer Mac's Blueberries Today

2009-05-24T20:27:00.007-04:00

Today, in addition to selling blueberries to drive-up customers, we had several exciting events happen. One of our ducks was setting on the island of our pond. All of a sudden, she came off the nest and into the pond squawking up a storm. The menfolk, of course, had to go and take a look, so they got into the boat and went across to see what was amiss.

After they got onto the island, they came across what was likely a chicken snake in the duck nest. By the time they got the correct equipment to deal with the snake, it had already eaten lots of eggs. That's when we discovered that the eggs that were left were in the process of hatching out. The fellers took the remaining eggs off the island and gave them to grandma to coddle.

Then in the midst of duck hatchings, the young female goat decided to give birth to her first offspring, a female who is just as cute as their twin aunt and uncle that were born in February.

During all this birthing, we had several blueberry customers who happened along at just the right time to see babies or babies in process. Then after all the excitement died down, Walt and Maria arrived. They are long time friends and blueberry aficionados that always stop in to stretch their legs on their long trek from northern Virginia to the beach. Then of course, they visit and pick berries lots of times while here. We're always excited to see them and their kids and grandkids arrive.

In the end, we have 9 new ducklings and a new kid to add to our farm menagerie. All in all, a great day on the farm. What with u-pick opening up this week, we're having a wonderful beginning to what we hope will be a good season! Welcome out to share the fun, comaraderie, and good times!

What should you expect when you pick your own blueberries?

2009-05-17T15:03:00.005-04:00

The answer to this depends on your situation and where you are located. Since we’re in southeastern North Carolina and our harvest season is most of June, we’ll look at it from our perspective.

What should you expect when you arrive at our farm? To start with, our road is slightly narrow, though there is ample space for 2 way traffic along most of it. When you come through the gate, the blueberry building is straight ahead. You’ll park somewhere around the pond and this is when you’ll want to take care of the sunscreen, find your hats, and change your shoes, if desired.

Some folks bring their “picking shoes” with them and put them on when they get here and before they leave. The reason for this is that sometimes there are ripe berries on the ground in the rows either from wind dropping them to the ground, from birds, or from customers not getting all the berries into their buckets. Also, if there has been rain, the ground could be a little sticky to your shoes. We have a shoe brush at the blueberry building that takes care of most of this.

Some folks take a few minutes to look at the ducks and chickens, talk to the goats or pet the horses before they begin. Others wait and do this after they are done picking berries. And then the kids usually like to see the animals at the beginning and the end.

If you’ve brought your own picking containers, you’ll bring them up to the blueberry building to be weighed. We also provide picking buckets for your use. Our buckets weigh ½ pound each, so when you weigh out, we’ll subtract ½ pound from the total weight and then charge you for the difference. If you bring your own, we’ll need to figure out how much your containers weigh so we can do the same with them when you’re ready to pay. If you do provide your own picking containers, they should have a handle so that our scale can accommodate them.

Many farms require that you pick in a particular area of the field. At Farmer Mac’s, we allow you to choose a spot, though sometimes we suggest certain areas that look more promising than others. Some folks walk around and pick berries from plants all over the field. Others choose a row and stay in the same general area for the duration. There’s no right or wrong answer for this. The more walking you do the less time you have to pick berries, but the more you enjoy being in great outdoors.

When the bushes are full of ripe blueberries, it takes 20-30 minutes to fill a 5 quart bucket (more or less depending on how many go into the mouth). These berries are clustered similar to grapes and if you hold your hands together palms up around the berry cluster and roll your thumbs over the berries to loosen them from the stems, they drop right into your open hands. During this part of the harvest season, if you stand at the end of a row and look down, you see blue all along the row.

When it gets toward the middle of June, the berries start feeling the heat and they hide from the sun inside the bush. At least this is how I describe it. What really happens is that the easy berries to see are the ones on the outside and those get harvested first. Once these are gone, then you have to move the branches to see the bounty on the inside of the outer leaf layer. During this part of the season, if you stand at the end of a row and look down, you may only see green. This doesn’t mean that there are no berries, it just means that what berries are there are underneath the leaf layer.

Some folks take one or more buckets out to the field and find that they need more. Since we’re a small farm and we do what we can to make your visit as worry free as possible, we have several ways to deal with this. If you are staying in one general area, you could put your full bucket(s) on the ground in the shade of a plant and keep track of them yourself. You could also bring them up to the blueberry building and we’ll tag them for you and keep them in the shade at the stand until you’re finished picking. This serves the purposes of keeping them in the shade as the sun moves, it allows you to take a small breather, to gab a bit, and to get additional buckets if you need them.

Once you’re done, we’ll weigh your berries, take your money, and help transfer your blueberries into your containers. If you didn't to bring containers, we have plastic grocery bags that can be used for this purpose.

We also have chairs in the shade, farm animals, our farm family and customers who are willing to share a smile and an experience. Feel free to stick around for a while or head on out when you’re ready.

Our goal is to provide you the freshest, tastiest blueberries and a farm experience that will make you smile when you remember picking berries and sharing stories at Farmer Mac’s Berries.

Blueberries and the Weather: what do they like, what do they need?

2009-05-08T22:33:00.007-04:00

When all else fails, talk about the weather. In this case, weather is a very relevant topic. What type of weather do blueberries like, what do they need, what can they do without.

WINTER
In the winter, blueberry plants need a certain number of chill hours. The way I understand it is that a chill hour is any hour that the temperature is below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Different varieties have different chill requirements, some of the Florida varieties needing 200 or less and others in colder climates needing many more than that.

In North Carolina, we also like to get our rainfall numbers up in the winter because we’ve seen unseasonably dry spring, summer and fall in years when tropical storms and/or hurricanes don’t make landfall in our area.

In the dormant stage, blueberries are hardy and can handle cold weather pretty well. The problem comes when they’ve reached the minimum number of chill hours required for coming out of dormancy. After this point, if the weather fluctuates too much, this causes early bloom that can’t be sustained to fully grown blueberries because of the near certainty of later frost and freeze.

To help alleviate frost or freeze damage, many farms use overhead sprinkler irrigation. When the temperature is predicted to go below freezing, the water is turned on and pumped onto the blueberry fields. The way I understand it is that this water forms an ice ring around the small blueberries on the plants. Something about the friction of the sprayed water and the ice cause the berry inside to be insulated against further freezing because between the ice and the berry is a layer of water or air. Someone feel free to correct me if I haven’t explained this correctly.

SPRING
A cold and/or rainy season when blueberries are flowering causes reduced blueberry conversion from flowers or bloom because the bees are less effective in rainy or cold weather. The flip side of this is that you don’t want it to be too warm too early because in these cases, the production is accelerated and then wiped out by a late frost or freeze as described above.

Rain right up until the day before harvest is a good thing, but once you start picking blueberries, you’d rather not have rain on the actual ripening fruit if you can help it. This is especially true if the harvesting gets behind schedule. Ripe or overripe fruit and rain do not mix well.

SUMMER
Also, with rain during the harvest season, there is diminished fruit flavor for a period of time after the rain. The blueberries drink up lots of water and until they can convert this water into berry material, the berries can get a waterlogged taste. We’ve had customers say that they rushed right over to get the big rain berries but came out of the field with disappointment because the size didn’t compensate for the diminished flavor.

I’d say the dog days of summer are when the humidity is 100% and the temperature is also hovering around 100° and it has to rain every afternoon just to keep us from drowning in waterlogged air. This typically happens in July and August and comes after most of the blueberry production is over, at least in coastal North Carolina, which means we don’t have to worry about it affecting the harvest season. This is also the season for tropical storms and hurricanes that can damage or uproot plants and cause flooding.

Hurricane season starts in June and does not mix well with the harvesting of blueberries. We had the last 1/3 of our season completely wiped out by a small tropical storm a couple of years ago due to the wind stripping the berries right off the plants and effectively eliminating the last 12 days of the season.

FALL
Summer and fall are times for plant growth in a blueberry field. Directly after harvest, we cut back the plants and fertilize them to stimulate growth until dormancy. Rain is nice in this season and if there isn’t sufficient rainfall now or any time during the year, irrigation is used to supplement natural rainfall.

At Farmer Mac’s Berries, we use drip irrigation from well water. The drip tape snakes through the plants on each row, causing drops of water to fall every 6 inches or so down the row. The beauty of drip irrigation is that it is very efficient and there is significantly reduced evaporation of the water into the atmosphere, so the plant gets more of the water that is pumped onto the field than with any other method of irrigation.

Watch our blueberries grow!

2009-05-03T17:28:00.023-04:00

Our established plants are doing exactly what they should be at this point...growing blueberries, or at least growing green berries larger so that they can become blueberries. Only a scattered flower remains in any of the fields and the bees have done a wonderful pollination job this year as we have converted lots of flowers into small blueberries that are growing daily.

This week has been a busy one and full of the tiniest of blueberry plants. On Tuesday and Saturday, we planted a total of 650 New Hanover variety plants in the back field. My husband doesn't really consider them plants, he refers to them as sticks. This is because when they are propagated, cuttings are taken that are about 6 inches long and they are put into a prepared medium for growing roots.

The sticks that we planted this week were cut in July of last year, and though most have tiny leaves on them, they are still basically sticks with a root ball on one end. Sometimes the root is a couple of strings. These are the plants we think likely won't make it. However, the norm is a quarter to golfball size root ball and the best of them have a large root system attached. Once you plant them, however, you just get the tip of the stick and whatever accompanying leaves they possess above the ground.

The New Hanovers are similar in harvest date to the Croatan variety, but they are larger and the plant is more durable during a wet season. This variety has a lot of promise as a substitute for the Croatans.

Croatans are the oldest variety in North Carolina. They have a very sturdy plant and a large volume harvest. They are also considered a very sweet blueberry with a thin skin which makes them an excellent choice for baked goods and other processed foods. The Croatans also make a very nice hedge row for backyard plantings. The downside to them is that because of their sweetness, during a wet harvest season, they have a very short life after harvest. For those of us in the food business, this is called shelf life.

The New Hanover cultivar, or cultivated variety, was developed by the Agricultural Research Service as an alternative to the Croatans. These appear to have more desireable characteristics in every way to a Croatan with a similar harvest interval, however they are also susceptible to shortened shelf life during a wet harvest season. So we'll see how they work out for us. If they look like a go after several years, we may migrate half of our Croatan production to New Hanover to give us a bit of diversity.

The O'Neal blueberry plants that we set out earlier this spring are growing remarkably well. Usually we have quite a bit of plant loss in the first several months after transplant. So far, we have lost 2 plants and that might have been because of a poor root set prior to transplanting. That is incredible success, at least on our farm! I have to confess that the credit can't all be taken by us. These plants came as 1 year olds rather than the sticks described above, so success is much more likely with an established plant than with a cutting. With good weather and irrigation, we hope to be able to keep the entire crop of sticks and yearlings alive and healthy so that they can become productive, blueberry-bearing plants in just a couple of years.

The most serious problem I see right now is fire ants. We treated for them last week, but it takes several weeks to see a reduction in force. I obviously didn't wait long enough to plant because the ants were out en masse and thought my knees were a delicacy during the planting process this week. I have to say this, though. Calamine lotion works remarkably well to reduce itching.

All in all, the warm weather is good and we're expecting rain this coming week that should help settle the dust. Looks like we're still right on track for having a decent harvest.

Spring...Rebirth, New Birth!

2009-04-24T11:29:00.031-04:00

For me, spring means rebirth, new birth, and revitalization. This is no more apparent than in the creation of nature's babies.

We have started the process of creating this year's crop of blueberries. The flowering season is practically over and miniscule green blueberries and small leaves abound in the fields alongside the bees, butterflies and birds.

This spring, the Farmer Mac's family has expanded in other ways. We are flush with babies of the feathered variety, though earlier in the spring our mama goat gave birth to twins and they are healthy and growing.

One of our Mallard ducks hatched out a flock of ducklings this afternoon. Another mother hatched some out on Tuesday. We think there are a dozen additions today, but they move so fast it's hard to tell exactly. From the Tuesay batch, I actually saw 7, but I confess I can't be sure this was the original number. We are now down to 4 as the snapping turtles and hawks consider them delicacies.

Hopefully we'll have a new crop of fledglings for us all to dodge during blueberry season!

Chicks arrived yesterday! We have a dozen Ameraucana chicks that are now three weeks old. This breed lays blue and green eggs, or what are known as Easter eggs. We're still looking for a permanent chicken coop for them, but as they are so tiny right now, there is no immediate rush.

The chicks are living in the small enclosure in the pond fence that we used for the kids when they were born. (And by kids, I mean the baby goats, not our lively children who act like them!)

Pygmy kids were born in February, a male and a female. One has tan legs and the other gray. They are still small enough to crawl under the gate which the male takes delight in doing on a daily basis.

Maali used to do this in reverse, crawling under to get into the pond area rather than to get out. I remember when the first u-pick customer couple said they saw her doing this, I had a hard time seeing how she could fit under it, but I firmly believed the fear and concern that radiated from them and took heed and moved the gate down a couple of inches.

Blueberries in Bloom!

2009-04-16T08:15:00.019-04:00

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!